The Missing American by Kwei Quartey ** (of 4)

On the up side, The Missing American captures Accra, Ghana in 2019. The vitality of a city bursting with a swelling population, new buildings begin constructed so quickly that potholed, unpaved roads don't match their shiny exteriors, incapacitating traffic, and street hawkers selling a WalMart of plenty. Also, the inside look at cybercrime is illuminating. We all remember the days when Nigerian princes emailed us asking for money; now, sakawa boys of Ghana have advanced their digital scams with great sophistication and it's fun to learn how they do it. After extracting money from susceptible patrons in the global north they using their profits to pay fetish priests to imbue them with additional money making powers, to corrupt everyone from local police to major politicians, and naturally to purchase really flashy cars.

On the down side, Emma Djian, Ghana's 26-year-old, virginal (yes, that seems important that the author let us know), crime fighter whose only personal interest appears to be volunteering in a home for autistic children is a character invented by a male author content to apply only superficial brush strokes. A lot of the book moves along rather snappily, but too many of the characters are one-dimensional: an over-eating, lazy policewoman; a chief of police who takes young female recruits into a back room to demand sexual favors; a jewel encrusted wife of an important politico addicted to money and prestige; a crusading anti-corruption journalist, and so on.