3.25 stars on Storygraph.

This isn't a higher rating for me mostly because I should have known that this wouldn't really be a book "for me" -- the gritty, noir, detective tone of it all wasn't my jam.

Really solid thematic work though, in my opinion. Heavily talking about colonialism and cultural (and racial) identity, particularly for someone who is biracial.

My thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for an advance copy of this novel that takes place in a Western African country, colonized by the French, with winds of both natural and unnatural forces threatening to blow everything away, and a private detective who can walk in both worlds doing his best to figure out what is happening.

I have always felt that crime novels can really tell us a lot of who we are as a people. Nonfiction sometimes has an agenda, prove the forces of good use technology, or go to lengths to find murders. In fiction one knows within pages that every part of the system is corrupt, and no body cares. Except for that lone knight, male, female, it doesn't matter. That character not afraid to hit those mean streets, be it LA in the 30's, London in the Victorian Age, a fantasy world, even a West African nation, colonized by the French, who still use a heavy hand. A character who no matter how much they have given up, how knocked down they get, how many lies they have to carry, still tries to do what is right. Crime novels tell us much about who we are as a people, how low we can descend, and how hard it is to do right. Even when one is caught between worlds in more ways than one. Harmattan Season is by award-winning author Tochi Onyebuchi and tells of a private detective who starts with a simple quest to find a missing body, and finds himself caught in a battle that might lift the lid, literally of his homeland.

Boubacar has a small room, over a smaller office in a building loaded with families, in a West African nation, currently under French control. Bouba, as people call him, is both a veteran, a private detective and what is called a deux fois, a person of both worlds. Bouba has gained a reputation for finding things, both for the people who live here, and the French who control the area. Recently Bouba has had a problem finding work, and his bills are even beginning to scare him. A knocking awakes him, a woman, bleeding from the stomach who speaks only a word or two, before the sounds of the police are heard. Bouba hides the woman, but she disappears, only to be found floating the middle of the city square, dead. Bouba is tasked to find out what is going on, for this woman is not the only body found floating, something that Bouba has not heard, which worries him. What could be so powerful, so strong, that no one is talking about 6 bodies. The more Bouba investigates, the more that he finds that something is going on, something much bigger that murder. As the winds of the Harmattan start to hit the city, Bouba is afraid that everything he knows will be blown away.

A mix of film noir, colonialism, and magical realism, all mixed well into a very tasty story. Onyebuchi is a very good writer, able to craft a world that seems slightly familiar, and yet different, mix in French influences, and hints of magic. Until the magic gets big. Bouba is a great character, and Onyebuchi does a good job of showing both his strong sense of responsibility, and the difficulties of being of two worlds. There is a scene where Bouba is being berated by a street thief and a school loan officer about his debts that really drives this point home. The story is good, the plot moves along, and is revealed slowly. Sometimes there is a little bit of an info dump, but even that makes sense in the way the story works.

I enjoyed the world, the mystery, the reasons why, and why Bouba does what he does. I love the influence of film noir, fantasy and a world that could exist. Onyebuchi is very good mixing all this, and crafting an intriguing and compelling story. This is the first I have read by Tochi Onyebuchi, but I look forward to reading many more.

My rating: 4.5

Although “fantasy noir” and “mystery” are good descriptions of the genre of this book, it can also be classified as magic realism - in my opinion.
From Brittanica:

“…chiefly Latin-American narrative strategy that is characterized by the matter-of-fact inclusion of fantastic or mythical elements into seemingly realistic fiction. … Some scholars have posited that magic realism is a natural outcome of postcolonial writing, which must make sense of at least two separate realities—the reality of the conquerors as well as that of the conquered.“

While this story takes place in Africa, the setting is definitely post-colonial, and the magic embedded in the story takes a hard boiled detective story to new heights.

The story is written in first person from the perspective of our intrepid detective, Boubacar. As we follow Bouba’s quest to find out what happened to the bleeding woman who stumbled through his door, we gain a picture of the uneasy peace between colonizer and the colonized. We learn about the history of the place, Boubacar’s personal history, and what drives him.

Pros:

the world-building is top notch - the setting, the history, the culture

the characters are well-fleshed out. It’s easy to gain a sense of who they are.

a wonderful plot - as with any good mystery, it’s a lot of fun following the detective around searching for clues.

excellent writing

Cons:

I have just one little quibbling criticism. In several of the long conversations between two characters, I got lost on which character was talking, and would have to go back to the beginning of the conversation to clarify. This would be easy to fix.

Will I read more of this author? Yes!

Positives: The setting is strong in the specifics - language, politics, history. The fantastical element is unexpected and striking.
Negatives: Scenes change very quickly between chapters, in a way that often feels rushed/confusing. Some scenes feel unfinished; the book, at times, feels more like a particularly well-written outline than a full draft.