Reviews with content warning for Violence - Lightseekers: Thriller

Three young students are brutally murdered in a Nigerian university town, & the murders & those who participated are filmed & put on social media. Very few people are on trial for the murders & those who are seem to be at risk of escaping justice. The father of one of the boys contacts investigative psychologist, Philip Taiwo, & asks for his help in ascertaining why the killings happened. Philip's research is into crowd behaviour & violence but he may be out of his depth with this case.

This one puts you through the wringer of emotions! The sheer horror & brutality of the three young students' deaths is shocking, but there's more to come when Philip Taiwo (recently returned to Nigeria with his family from living in the US) comes up against the culture clash during his investigation. It's not a high action thriller, or even a pacy legal thriller, it's an examination of the issue of mob violence & the atrocities to which this can lead. The main character also has his flaws, an estrangement with his wife could be sorted out with a conversation but Philip decides to nurse his grievances instead, & he flirts with his attraction to another woman. Overall though I enjoyed it enough to finish reading it & will pick up the next in the series.

Content Warnings

minimicropup's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Insightful, raw, humble.

Our MC is an investigative psychologist hired to look into the death of three undergraduates who were accused of stealing, dragged out, and murdered by a mob of angry community members.
🇳🇬 Set in Port Harcourt and Okriki (based on Okrika), Nigeria

🐺🐕Growls, Howls, and Tail Wags:

👍 We get some background on our investigative psychologist including his relationship with his wife and family. Sometimes that takes me out of a story when I'm more interested in the plot, but it was well done and I cared about Dr. Taiwo since he also was given good character development.

☺️ We are given context for customs, cultural meaning, and traditions without disruptive overexplanation or talking down to the reader. For example, Dr. Taiwo notices how his assistant behaves and speaks to him so that's how we come to understand what is considered formal or informal if you aren't familiar. And when something would be a natural progression due to friendship vs a sign of disrespect, because it's shown not just told.

👌 Similarly, we see that there is political corruption, hatred, and prejudice, but it isn't a judgy good vs evil thing or looked down upon as if Nigeria is less-than. Since Dr. Taiwo was educated in the US and has recently moved to Lagos, he finds himself lost, confused, even horrified sometimes about local ongoings. Other characters help him to understand the history for why some of these systems exist and continue, why many feel it is justified and even keeping them safe, and we learn alongside him. The other characters were also developed - the characters I didn't trust weren't always untrustworthy and those who seemed benign or helpful weren't always so.

😇 Our MC is trying to do his job without ruffling feathers, but his morals and questions sometimes get him into hot water. For me, it wasn’t contrived, convoluted, or annoying because I also felt as shocked, confused, or uncertain about events and people as the MC. The suspense probably relies on caring about our MC though, but he is likeable for the most part (even if sometimes naive).

💥💪 I tend to lose interest in action-adventure crime thrillers, but this worked for me because the high-stakes moments weren't drawn out with overly descriptive action moves, contrived escapes, or long-winded attempts at survival somehow always going wrong. It seemed realistic and plausible.

Mood Reading Match Up:

Crime fiction about corruption and small town secrets
High stakes sleuthing suspense threaded with light touches of cozy mystery moments
Action-adventure dark academia with escape-to-survive plots and violent threats
Contemporary fiction about psychological effects of trauma on societies and communities

Content Heads-Up: Infidelity (suspected). Mob mentality and violence. Fire/fire injury. Drug use (addiction). Homophobia (persecution and imprisonment). Corruption (political and law enforcement). Religious violence. Gun violence. Grief (loss of adult child). Mental illness/breakdown (from trauma).

Format: Kindle

Content Warnings

kirstym25's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Content Warnings

naiu_cs's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Content Warnings

chikamma's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Content Warnings

octygon's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I thoroughly enjoyed this mystery, as did all the other members of my book club. This book was clearly inspired by the Aluu 4 incident, and does a really interesting job discussing "jungle justice," vigilantism, government corruption, modern diaspora of African people, etc. It was a very thought-provoking book. The main character, Dr. Philip Taiwo, is a criminal psychologist, and has recently returned to Nigeria. He and his wife were educated in America, and worked here for many years, but they recently decided it was time bring their young family back to the country of their birth. Because of this, Dr. Taiwo and his family are kind of between cultures--Nigerian and American, both outsider and native at the same time. Dr. Taiwo is asked to investigate a necklace lynching of 3 college students in a village near the city of Port Harcourt--a horrific example of vigilatism that members of the mob videoed and posted on the internet. The mystery is not who did it--that's obvious--the mystery is *why,* and how a crowd of local villagers can transform into a dangerous mob that can kill. My book club felt the author went a little too far with the end of the book, but I felt it worked. Along the way, we really enjoyed the characters and the story, and everything we learned about Nigeria. The relationships between the characters were great. We loved Dr. Taiwo and his family, we desperately hope that Salome gets her own book, and Chika needs one, too!

Content Warnings

More...