When Trouble Sleeps by Leye Adenle: A Book Review by Stella Inabo.
Crime. Car chases. Gunfights. Blackmail. A beautiful heroine. Sounds like perfect ingredients for a crime thriller set in Lagos and “When Trouble Sleeps” lives up to the reputation of its forebear, “Easy Motion Tourist” giving a story that makes you both love and dread Lagos.
Amaka returns without her foreign love interest to fight against powerful men preying on sex workers. As she is carrying out her personal crusade against the gubernatorial candidate, she also has to manage to stay out of the claws of Malik, her nemesis.
The fast-paced book begins with an unlikely man, Chief Ojo gaining candidacy for governor after the previous candidate dies in a plane crash. He has a dark secret that is tied to the Harem, the mysterious sex club on the outskirts of the city, owned by Malik. Amaka loses the initial evidence against Chief Ojo which she had gathered in an attempt to rescue a victim of jungle justice.
She has no other choice than to fight dirty by joining the opposition party in order to gain protection for herself and to stop Chief Ojo from winning the election. She emerges triumphant in the end, stopping him from attaining victory by giving him all the votes in a rigged election. She flees the country to reunite with Guy and to give their love a second chance.
Adenle paints a vivid picture of how politics works in Nigeria, how the people are easily manipulated to turn against themselves while the flames of violence are stoked by the powerful in order to gain security vote funds. The politicians wage war in public but laugh over drinks in private planning wins and losses in the elections. Mobs quickly form and dissolve, taking lives with them and leaving the ashes for the loved ones to mourn. Lives are changed every day when people are forced to take actions they never would have because they feel cornered. Evil people thrive, opportunistic and supported by a system of injustice, they take lives without repercussions. Amaka is a knight. A warrior setting off to battle all odds in order to save the few she can. She is joined by some people. Sergeant Ibrahim helps her try to capture Malik, at first spurred on by his fondness for her and then by his need for revenge after losing a colleague. Through his eyes, I saw the Nigerian Police Force as humane, in their own way working through the system trying to keep some form of order and yet failing.
The theme of jungle justice left a chill in my bones, especially after Chioma became a “murderer” using the same method her brother met his death to deal with the man that orchestrated his end. Even though Amaka does not support it, she responds with understanding because she knows the necessity of these things. Lagos makes monsters out of men and she is no different as she rigs an entire election just to stop a sexual molester from becoming the governor. Backstabbing and blackmail are employed by the major characters to achieve their ends.
In a way, Adenle makes a case for Nigerians, by letting us see why they do what they do. Not all people that commit crimes are thoroughly bad. They might just have had to. But not all people get away with it.
The story ends with Amaka winning the battle. Maybe some good can prevail in this country even though the methods that are used to bring it about are unscrupulous. Nigeria is a contradiction and will always be. I would recommend this book if you are looking for an exciting novel that you would not want to put down.
