Lords of Corruption

 

I usually cringe when I hear "ripped from the headlines" applied to a book since it tends to have more of a cheesy marketing stamp than anything substantive. But Kyle Mills's latest standalone thriller Lords of Corruption could indeed have stepped right out of the newspapers, as the almost-daily turmoil we see in African countries like Somalia and Sudan can attest. The violent Africa of Mills's world view is a far different cry from the gentle Botswana of Alexander McCall Smith, rife as it is with tribal battles and government corruption.

Mills has put together a compelling story of a young down-on-his luck American named Josh Hagarty who is recruited by a charitable organization ostensibly to work on agricultural projects in the heart of Africa — only the projects are a front for something not at all charitable, his guide Gideon turns out to be a thug with ties to the genocidal dictator of the country, and Josh discovers too late his predecessor was found dismembered in the jungle.

There are a few cliches in the cast of characters, including a beautiful blond heroine who helps Josh in his fight to stay alive and a psychotic Eastern European, but both the interactions of the characters and the mixture of chaos and resigned acceptance among the locals are handled well, and, dare I say it:  it's a genuine page turner.

In a Q&A with BookReporter, Mills comments on the fact he gained first-hand experience from the winters he spends in Cape Town, South Africa, and adds:

"I originally went there for research and became convinced that Africa was the ideal environment for crime. In much of the continent, there’s no one watching the store at all. And some of the governments are so corrupt, they would be happy to cooperate as long as they got a cut. It’s a far cry from the U.S. or Europe where organized criminals are always having to look over their shoulders."

Lest you think the book and/or plot are racist, that's not the case at all. Mills brings in elements of how the "white" world has interfered in African affairs to an extent that has caused more problems than it has solved (if indeed any have been solved).