The puzzling murder of three African directors of a foreign-owned brewery sets the scene for this hard-hitting novel about disillusionment in neocolonial Kenya. While Ngũgĩ’s novels are generally set in Kenya, Ngũgĩ writes from a Pan-African perspective whereby the story of disillusionment with African leadership can be applied to the entire African continent and the African Diaspora. This story is more than a mystery as it places the characters within the context of so-called “postcolonial” independence and their efforts to reconcile their personal lives with the neocolonial trajectory of Kenyan society.
