Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Weston Kogi is a supermarket store detective in London. When he returns to the country of his birth (Alcacia, a fictional West African state, inspired by Nigeria) for the funeral of his aunt, the woman who took care of him as a child and put him on a plane to London just as the country exploded into civil war and thus secured him a better life, he runs up against people from his past. The abusive father who always disliked and was ashamed of him, the boy who bullied him at school and made his childhood a torment, the girl he loved.

It is the latter, Churchill “Church” Okita, the boy who bullied him at school, who has the biggest and most immediate impact. For he has heard that Kogi is a detective, mistaken his job title to mean he is a proper police detective and abducts him to press him into service investigating a real-life murder. Church is an enforcer for one of two main rebel groups, the Liberation Front of Alcacia (LFA) and they want to know who assassinated an elder statesman who was refereeing negotiations with the Government. Kogi begins his investigations out of necessity (he doesn’t want to be murdered if Church and the LFA discover the truth) but soon discovers he has an aptitude for the work.

It isn’t long before the other guerrilla group, the People’s Christian Army (PCA) get involved, as indeed does the government’s intelligence services and the plot of Making Wolf becomes a combination of gumshoe PI novel in a unique setting, political thriller, and satire about West African corruption.

Tase Thompson is a gifted writer of Nigerian descent. Making Wolf is his first foray into crime fiction (before this he’s written sci-fi) and the first novel of his that I’ve read. Making Wolf seems like the first on a new series and I really hope it is, as this was a thoroughly enjoyable read. A well-written novel with a cast of interesting characters, this is a great read.

For those crime fiction aficionados who need something a little different, I heartily recommend Making Wolf. Tade does a great job setting up his detective, Weston Kogi, and slowly pulling him into the case of the murdered politician back in his birth country. Nothing ever feels over-written or trying too hard as Weston's initial lie to old friends and family gets him into more trouble than he would ever have guessed. The clues keep coming and I raced through the book in only a couple of days.

If you have read Thompson's Rosewater trilogy you'll know that he should be seriously rated as a fiction writer but you may expect to only find him writing SFF. However with Making Wolf he's brought some of the same sensibility to the crime/ thriller genre - albeit a great deal more gore!

Making Wolf is a homeconing for Weston Kogi, a young man who left - fled - the West African state of Alcacia some fifteen years before amidst civil war. He's come back for his aunt's funeral (his aunt, who helped him get away in the first place) and doesn't intend to stay long, indeed the first part of book has some amusing scenes where it's clear that Kogi's time in London (he works as a store detective) has left him rather adrift in Alcacia. He can't bear the heat and humidity and has a a morbid fear of mosquitos.

However, those are the least of his problems. Once it comes known that he's a "detective" (he may have been vague about what sort) he becomes a prize for two warring rebel factions, each of whom wish him to prove that the other was responsible for the death of the revered Papa Busi, the only political figure who might have been able to unite the nation. Soon Kogi's plunged into a nightmare of abductions, executions, and what begins as a performative investigation meant simply to keep him alive and buy some time while he works out a way to escape.

Which is where the comedy stops, as Thompson transitions into a very smart thriller, one that allows Kogi to explore the ins and outs of Alcacian society, sketching out both its postcolonial woes and the necessities of life there. This is done through Kogi fairly quickly relearning (in order to survive) how not to appear like a gullible foreign visitor (though he has a few near misses to begin with) while not so quickly discovering exactly what's going on around him (which is what poses the greater threat).

The latter element is a satisfying complex web of motivations and double crosses - Making Wolf may be a relatively short book but there's a great deal going on here and no time at all for the story to sag.

It's good so see that Thompson leaves the ending sufficiently open that we can imagine follow-ups in which Weston Kogi turns his attention to new mysteries.

I would mention that Making Wolf contains some pretty brutal scenes - in particular a couple of gruesome deaths. They're not gratuitous (the book takes place amidst a low intensity civil war) but aren't for the squeamish.

My thanks to Little, Brown Book Group - Constable for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Making Wolf’ by Tade Thompson in exchange for an honest review. It was Thompson’s first novel and originally published in the USA in 2015 and has now found a new home with Constable.

Since 2015 Thompson has established himself as a author of cutting edge science fiction with The Wormwood Trilogy set in Nigeria. ‘Making Wolf’ is a blend of crime and political thriller.

It is set in Alcacia, a tiny fictional country squeezed in between Nigeria and Cameroon. As the novel’s narrator states: “Former British colony, former French protectorate, former Portuguese trading post, now in its fourth decade of independence, the country of my genetic contributors. I’m British these days, but I still consider myself loyal to Alcacia.”

Weston Kogi is a security guard in a London supermarket. When his Aunt Blossom dies, he returns to his West African home country of Alcacia that he had left fifteen years previously to attend her funeral. While there he meets with his estranged family and his ex-girlfriend Nana. More worryingly, he encounters Churchill "Church" Okita, who had bullied him mercilessly when they attended boarding school. Church still makes him nervous.

Still, Weston is enjoying himself and brags to Church that he is a homicide detective with the Metropolitan Police. It seems a harmless deception but one that backfires spectacularly when he is kidnapped twice and forced by two separate rebel factions to investigate the murder of a local hero, Papa Busi.

He has no choice but to look into the case and it quickly becomes apparent that there has been a cover-up. Weston is plunged into a dark, violent underworld in which his life is in constant jeopardy. In addition, the outcome of the investigation might well tip the country, already in the grip of a volatile political situation, into civil war.

While, this is an example of gritty African noir, it also has a vein of dark humour running through it, mainly in the form of Weston’s reflections and asides as he frantically attempts to keep his head above water. This wise-cracking draws on the tropes associated with the hard-boiled detective of classic crime noir.

Despite some disturbing and quite gruesome violence, I found this very entertaining and feel that it could easily have been the start of a series of crime thrillers. Although science fiction has become the focus of Thompson’s writing, perhaps with ‘Making Wolf’ reaching a new audience Thompson will pick up the thread and pen more adventures for Weston.

This was my first experience of Thompson’s work even though I have been intending to read The Wormwood Trilogy. I must rectify that soon as this was excellent.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

A scintillating and particularly brutal African Noir from Tade Thompson, lyrical, beautifully written, thought provoking, full of black humour but not really for the faint hearted. Set in the fictitious West African civil war torn country, the Yoruba dominated Alcacia, a version of Nigeria, where murder, killing and brutality is an everyday affair in the never ending civil war, life is cheap, the beggars with their self inflicting wounds and amputations, hypocrisy, corruption and bribery rife, the government's sky high defence spending favouring foreign powers keen to sell their weapons of mass death and destruction. Weston Kogi grew up in Alcacia prior to being helped by his Aunt Blossom to escape the war and his home country, along with his sister, Lynn, going to Britain, where he is now unhappily working as a supermarket store detective in London. Kogi now returns 15 years later, to attend the funeral of his aunt in Ede city, intending to stay only for two days.

Kogi has forgotten what his home country is like, making the kind of errors that make him an easy target, in a country where every person has their own agenda that is not always transparent. When he bumps into an ex-school bully, Churchill 'Church' Okita, at the funeral, Kogi claims to be a Met homicide detective in the hope that this will ensure he is left alone. However, this backfires spectacularly when he is abducted by Church and the People's Liberation Army led by Osa Ali, with their motto of 'in guns we trust'. Shocked by seeing a man torn apart and dismembered by a pick up truck, he is tasked with investigating the murder of the sainted Enoch Olubusi, a contender for the Nobel Peace Prize. Kogi sinks into the deadly abyss that is Alcacia, caught between two homicidal rebel factions, a shadowy state secret police, losing any sense of morality and values as he faces danger round every corner, beatings, threats to his life and assassins.

Thompson paints a vividly vibrant picture of a sweltering Alcacia of guns, bombs, the blood curdling brutally casual killings, its fast running rivers of blood, the ongoing war and machinations between the rebel factions, and a government bureaucracy that is oiled by extensive bribery, replicated in every aspect of life elsewhere too. How Alcacia came to be in this invidious position goes back to its colonial history and murky current relations with Western nations and other major outside powers and corporations, where its government officials are on the take big time, and ordinary people are left with next to nothing. Kogi himself is no innocent either, a victim who very soon begins to resemble the people he is surrounding by, the nation that was his former home, establishing a relationship with a bright ex-girlfriend he had dropped like a hot potato when he first left the country. The author provides an all too pertinent social and political commentary in this hugely compulsive and riveting read, an African crime noir that I recommend highly. A brilliant and unforgettable debut. Many thanks to Little, Brown for an ARC.