Hawa Golakai's The Lazarus Effect

A review of Hawa Jande Golakai’s The Lazarus Effect

Book: The Lazarus Effect

Author: HJ Golakai

Publisher: Kwela Books

Year of publication: 2011

Number of pages: 310

Hawa Jande Golakai’s debut novel The Lazarus Effect is what they a “whodunnit”. A young woman called Jaqueline “Jacqui” Paulsen is murdered by an unknown assailant in Cape Town South Africa. She was raised by Adelle Paulsen a single mother while her father Dr Ian Fourie a successful doctor had another family. The case of the missing seventeen-year-old Jacqui baffled the cops but they had some leads working for them. Their prime suspect was Ashwin Venter who was a boyfriend of hers and who was the last person to see her alive. He looked good for the crime as he had kids with two other women he was paying maintenance for as well as being violent and he didn’t want to pay maintenance on a third child if she was pregnant. Also, an interesting angle was the second family that Jaqui belonged to including Dr Ian, his wife Carina and kids Serena, Rosie and Lucas. So whodunnit? The police investigated it thoroughly but two years later there were no more leads. Textbook cold case.

Enter Urban Magazine investigative reporter Voinjama “Vee” Johnson. Liberian-born, she lives in South Africa and makes a living working under Portia Kruger the managing editor of the magazine. She is thrust into the case when she starts hallucinating and getting breakdowns with the lady who died being at the centre of it all. So she has no choice but to follow through and try and crack the case if she was to get back her sanity. All she has working for her is that she is a reporter working to crack the case with the help of an assistant Chloe who was foisted upon her she has to solve the case.

I love this book for many reasons but the following three are my favourite;

1. Humour!

The writer is hella funny. Sample this on page 141;

The only word befitting the structure was “mansion.” The Cape Dutch-style home was concealed from view by a tidy cluster of oak trees, their new spring leaves swishing gently in the light breeze. The skirts of a plush lawn decorated a cobbled spine of a walkway leading to a veranda creeping with vine and rustic appeal. Vee resisted the urge to press her lowly nose through the wrought-iron bars of the fence and beg the residence within for a crust of bread and a farthling.”

2. Action!
You might be confused to imagine that this is one of those sleuthing books with computer hacking and surreptitious following of cars. It has all that. But this one also sees the main protagonist Vee involved in fights and has to hold her own both in Cape Town and her country of birth when fleeing the flight. She fights the main suspect Ashwin and holds her own and gets injured but still has the gumption to get up and continue with her investigation. Tough as nails our Vee.

3. Sex!
There is like you know… getting laid. Vee finds herself having to choose between her ex Titus Wreh and her good friend Joshua Allen. She has sex with one of them and the book describes the actions of the two when they finally get down to the nasty. Its not exactly Xaviera Hollander but there was a bit of a tingling when I read that scene in the book. I need to see more of this in African books if possible.

I have a feeling that this is not the last time I will be reading Vee Johnson adventures. This series if it comes has some serious legs.


Posted

in

,

by

Comments

8 responses to “A review of Hawa Jande Golakai’s The Lazarus Effect”

  1. […] Hawa Golakai – The Lazarus effect – Official website with publisher and my review of her book. […]

  2. […] Hawa Golakai – The Lazarus effect – Official website with publisher and James Murua’s review of her book. […]

  3. […] reporter Voinjama “Vee”Johnson in Cape Town, South Africa and her assistant Chloe. You can read my review of that book here. The writer was also one of the Africa39 […]

  4. […] contagiar al lector su fascinación por la investigación. El humor, la acción y el erotismo son otros de los ingredientes de esta novela […]

  5. […] in Liberia. The writer introduced the book in conversation with the writer of The Lazarus Effect (my review)and part of the Africa39 list Hawa Jande Golakai. The event was attended by a cross section of […]

  6. […] contagiar al lector su fascinación por la investigación. El humor, la acción y el erotismo son otros de los ingredientes de esta novela […]

  7. […] reporter Voinjama “Vee”Johnson in Cape Town, South Africa and her assistant Chloe. You can read my review of that book here. The writer was also one of the Africa39 […]

  8. […] Voinjama “Vee” Johnson in Cape Town, South Africa and her assistant Chloe. You can read my review of that book here. The writer was also one of the Africa39 […]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.