Published 29th February 2024 by Hutchinson Heinemann.
From the cover of the book:
THE PERFECT WIFE. THE PERFECT MURDER.Nicole Oruwari has the perfect life: a handsome husband, a palatial house in the heart of Lagos and a glamorous group of friends. She left London and a troubled family past behind to become part of a community of expat wives.
But when Nicole disappears without a trace after a boat trip, the cracks in her so-called perfect life start to show.
As the investigation turns up nothing but dead ends, her aunt Claudine flies to Nigeria to take matters into her own hands. As she digs into her niece's life, she uncovers a hidden truth. But the more she finds out about Nicole, the more Claudine's own buried history threatens to come to light.
***********
When Nicole Oruwari moved to Lagos from London, to live with her husband Tonye's wealthy parents, she was excited about the kind of life that lay ahead for them and their two small boys. However, underneath the shine of their picture-perfect existence among Lagos' elite, Nicole's time as a Niger-wife is far from easy. When she suddenly goes missing after failing to return from a boat trip with her glamorous friends, no one seems concerned enough to ask the important questions about where she might have gone... except for the woman who raised her as her own, her aunt Claudine.
Frustrated at the lack of progress in discovering the fate of her niece, Claudine flies to Lagos to find out exactly what is going on, and she is disturbed to discover that Tonye and his family are a lot more concerned about a big family wedding than the mystery of Nicole's disappearance. Claudine decides to do some sleuthing herself, however difficult the task. As she gradually uncovers the uncomfortable truth about her niece's unhappiness, the secrets she has kept hidden for so long about her own past threaten to burst free too...
The Lagos Wife is a slow-burn literary thriller that combines a gripping murder mystery, with a beautifully written exploration of a feast of fascinating themes about ex-pat life, expectation, and isolation in Nigeria's bustling city of Lagos. The novel unfurls in two utterly compelling timelines - one 'before' Nicole's disappearance from her perspective, and one 'after' from Claudine's as she goes about trying to discover what happened to her niece.
Claudine drives the crime element of the story forward, as Nicole fills in cultural detail about the complexities of living in Lagos as an outsider. Walters uses them both to perfection to explore a marriage falling apart, while Nicole attempts to find a sense of purpose in a life that promised so much but has failed to deliver; and, in parallel, follows Claudine's determined meddling into the affairs of an outwardly conservative society that prefers to keep its scandals very much undercover - an enterprise that brings her own trauma to the fore. Hand in hand, the two threads intertwine to make a spellbinding whole that keeps you turning the pages all the way to the shocking twist and twist again ending.
The woman in this story hold your attention completely: primarily through the voices of Nicole and Claudine, as the impact of their dysfunctional family history ripples through time. Walters also delves into the wider experiences of women in Nigeria through Tonye's family, and the Niger-wives society formed to help ex-pat wives negotiate the intricacies of life in an unfamiliar landscape. Intriguingly, she does not just confine herself to the women, as she adds balance by having some thought provoking things to say about Nigerian men too, especially the pressure felt by those returning to their homeland after living away from family demands in less strict countries around the world.
One of my favourite things about this novel is the way Walters probes different aspects of racism, power, discrimination, and the value placed on human life. And I am in awe at the striking way she incorporates the terrible history of the slave trade into Nicole and Claudine's sides of the story - especially the mind-blowing way she brings this full-circle at the powerful conclusion of the book.
This is literary crime at its very best, with a gritty core embellished by rich cultural texture, that informs as much as it entertains. As one of the best books I have ever consumed about contemporary Nigeria, I can wholeheartedly recommend this to you as a must-read. I loved it, and am really looking forward to what comes next from Vanessa Walters.
The Lagos Wife is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.
Thank you to Hutchinson Heinemann for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.
About the author:
No comments:
Post a Comment