Max O’Brien finds himself in a predicament that he needs to find his way out of. In Africa, albinos are a commodity. They are killed for their body parts and Max’s girlfriend was murdered for trying to stop it. She was an attorney who fought vigorously to defend the Albino population. Max wants answers. The story starts out with great leaps and bounds. It pulls you in and at some point starts to let go and you begin to wonder what happened. It drags on slowly and then picks up speed again. The author did a great job at ensuring the reader has all of the pertinent info but does not go overboard. I enjoyed this book except for the few slow spots but those were not enough to put the book down.

Thank you to netgalley as well as the author/publisher for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

It took me a minute to really get into this book. But it was so worth the wait. Everything that I had questions about throughout the book came together at the end. It was interesting to read a story set in Africa. This book seemed very researched which gave it a very authentic feel.

Edgy crime series!

A strong, racey, crime noir that takes you from Tanzania to the United States and on to the north west area of Canada.
From the scourge of abhorrent superstitious practices with albinism and body parts, centered in Tanzania to a black market trade in the world beyond (thanks to the dark side of the web), to the small exclusive world of American executioners in those States where the death penalty is still part of the legal system.
There are two storytellers. We approach the story from the perspective of the first, Max O'Brien, a con man without pretensions. We first meet him carrying out a sting in Zanzibar. The second story teller is Roselyn Kerensky, wife of a retired executioner.
How these two stories might intersect puzzled me. I kept wondering about the relevance. That was decisively put to rest as the action evolved.
When Max is notified of the deaths of his ex mistress Valéria and her daughter Sophie he is thrown. Valéria was an Albino rights worker, killed in her home in Tanzania. Max's hunt for their killers begins.
There is some resolution for me but not in all areas. This leaves questions, although the immediate reasons for Valéria's death are closed.
This is the first Max O'Bien novel I've read. I loved it and I will be keeping my eyes open for more works by Mario Bolduc. The Tanzania Conspiracy confirms my opinions about edgy works Québécois produce in the arts. Even the cover is exciting. This novel by Bolduc won't be my last!

A Dundurn ARC via NetGalley

Max is a con man with a heart - and witnessing his running circles around an arrogant and smug billionaire on a yacht near a refugee boat with baking and hungry people, is a delightful way to begin. his great love of former times , advocating albinos in a people smuggling international operation is killed with her daughter - the police don't care all that much, and Max takes it on himself to dig into it - I learned so much about this part of the world, and about this vile trade - and while some of Max's activities are on borderline of being credible, his heart and wit are in the right places - very enjoyable and i am going to look for earlier stories in the series.

*Many thanks to the Author, Dundrum and Netgalley for providing me with ARC in exchange for my honest review.*
Mario Bolduc wrote a thriller in which readers find a good plot with twists and turns, and an important issue around which the story evolves, namely persecution of Albino population. The tragedy of so called white Africans has been given a lot of publicity, and rightly so, and The Tanzania Conspiracy is another voice which hopefully will be heard. Max O'Brien, a man of many talents, gets involved in a mystery murder of two women who ran a charity aiming at protecting Albino population. Apart from a fast-paced thriller, readers get the opportunity to learn something more about Africa, and this information is not the sugar-coated version you get when you go on a trip to this beautiful continent ... I enjoyed not only the book, but the crash course on political developments in Tanzania over the last decades as well.

International con man, Max O’Brien, had been hoping to retire, but is convinced to carry out one last scam to help an old lover, Valéria, who desperately needs a large injection of cash to save her ‘Colour of Respect’ foundation. Her daughter, Sophie, tells Max that the foundations funds have been embezzled by the accountant. They cannot go to the police, because the foundation’s reputation would suffer too much, and their crucial work in saving albino children would be destroyed.
The book is set mostly in Africa – predominantly in Tanzania, but also in Rwanda and Kenya. The focus is on the illegal trade in albino children’s body parts, which are believed to have magical properties: “This superstition pushed gangs of criminals in search of profit to scour the countryside for albinos of any age, kidnapping, killing, and cutting them up, then selling pieces of their bodies to medicine men and healers who flogged them to their customers”. Valéria and her foundation campaign tirelessly to protect albinos and their families, and to stop this abhorrent industry.
First comes the scam, where an American billionaire is relieved of two million dollars. I did not like this episode – it lacked finesse, and it reflected badly on Max, who apart from this action, comes across as a likeable, and generally moral, rogue. Still, Max gets the money Valéria needs. Unfortunately, before she receives it, Valéria and Sophie are brutally murdered. The rest of the book concerns Max’s attempts to discover why they were murdered, and to track down the murderer. The Tanzanian police are wilfully incompetent, national politics rears its ugly head, there are more murders, and Max is arrested, kidnapped, beaten, and barely escapes with his life. Added to his troubles, Max finds out he has also been scammed, and the money has disappeared.
There is also a side story, of an elderly former American state executioner who has gone missing, and is sought by his wife and son-in-law. It is not until quite late in the book, that the relevance of this disappearance is made clear.
The story becomes quite convoluted, and both Max and the reader spend much of the time perplexed. Thankfully, all is explained by the end, following a myriad of twists and turns. Everyone has secrets, some that they will kill to hide, and few characters are as simple as they at first glace appear to be.
I found this book very interesting, as it dealt with a part of Africa I had not read about before (let alone visited), and a horrendous superstition and trade that was new to me. It all seems very well researched and the setting quite believable. The story was riveting and I had to know who had committed the murder(s) and why. Nothing was straightforward or predictable, and the ending rather out of the blue. For that reason, I can only give the book four instead of five stars, although I definitely do recommend reading it.
I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

This is not the easiest or most obvious read but stick with it. Yes, Max is a con man but as with the earlier books, that almost irrelevant to the plot, which honestly is a tad more convoluted that it needed to be. As before (and don't worry if you haven't read Bolduc before), most of the action takes place outside of Canada, in this case, Tanzania. Bolduc uses the mystery of a disappearance in Texas and bad news about Max's former lover to explore the issue of trafficking in the body parts of Albino Africans. Yes, this is gruesome. Yes, it's also a real thing. There are two threads and the plot meanders in time a bit but things do some together. Thanks to Netgalley for the ArC.

I really wanted to like this book because I traveled to Tanzania recently and had heard about the plight of people with albinism in Tanzania. However, I just couldn't get into it so I quit reading about 25% of the way through.

A Tale of Two Continents

Max O’Brien is an unlikely hero as he is a con man. This is the third novel by Mario Bolduc featuring O’Brien. All were originally written in French, and this novel was translated by Jacob Homel. Translators often do not get a mention, but without them we would be restricted to English only books, thus missing the variety currently on offer to us.

The two continents referred to in the header are Africa and America – specifically Tanzania and North America (the USA and Canada). We follow O’Brien’s exploits in Tanzania and in parallel get to know the family of the Huntsville prison executioner in the USA. How on earth can these two storylines come together?

O’Brien is basking in the glow of his latest successful con when he receives dreadful news about a former lover Valeria Michieka and her daughter Sophie. The two women are the driving force behind a charity devoted to the assistance of albinos who are persecuted and sought out by witchdoctors for their body parts which are said to protect their new owners. At around the same time the retired executioner, Albert Karensky, disappears from his accommodation where he was living, having walked out on his wife, Roselyn, some time previously. The hunt is on in each place.

The purpose of a novel is principally to entertain. Frankly, this publication is not only a tale of two continents but is also a tale of two halves. The first half jumped around chronologically to the point where it was a distraction. The author also showed off his impeccable research into African political history. His knowledge would have been breath-taking had it not bored me senseless. This was not 5-star material, and I would not have persevered had I not been reviewing it. However, it was worth continuing as the second half was certainly a massive improvement once the two storylines converged and the timeline was stabilised. It was just a shame that a consistent quality was not maintained throughout.

mr zorg

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review

This book shed light for me on the terrible treatment of albino people in Africa. I had no idea there was such a large black market in African albino people and body parts in Africa. The book is well researched, it delved into the background of human trafficking of Albinos, politics, corruption and witchcraft in Tanzania. Fast paced. Well written. I will definitely recommend this book.
I would like to thank Netgalley, the publisher and the author for providing me with a review co

What a unique premise! Stories about persecution of minority groups is nothing new, of course, but this one's focus on albinos is especially heart-wrenching, particularly when their capture and enslavement results in the sale of body parts, perhaps one of the most heinous crimes against humanity. The plot was riveting and the pace frenetic; the characterizations were superbly drawn. A great book that's highly recommended.

A very interesting read I found this to be. Very sad and shocking in equal measure as it’s about the fate of albinos in Africa, politics, genocide and other tough topics. Yet there is also a mystery, a crime novel and a thread of a story leading back to Canada all the way through Texas too so the social and world implications are even bigger than first thought.

It paints a very harsh picture of Africa and I shudder to think that even half of this might be true. Witchcraft, black magic and folklore so powerful that people are willing to kill for it. You do despair for human kind sometimes but it just goes to show how powerful cultural and religious beliefs can be.

In this environment then, to have Max O’Brien, a man of many aliases, and a con man to boot, to investigate the goings on in the book, is quite apt. It certainly opened my eyes to such practices !Is this barbaric abuse and trafficking of body part really true?

A good thriller but it was quite complex in parts and I found myself having to take notes to keep track of character stories and locations. Still, a fascinating read on many levels.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Wow, there was a lot going on in this book, and a lot to like. We start by following what seem to be two completely separate narratives, one in Texas and another in Tanzania, and I had NO idea how they were going to be connected until more than halfway through the book. I really enjoyed following all of the very different characters with their different plotlines and motivations throughout. Though I will say I wish we got more about Albert Karensky and what made him tick. And, I wish we had a primary character to follow who was actually African.

This book shed light for me on the terrible plight of albino people, specifically children, in Africa. I had no idea there was such a large black market trade in African albino people and body parts in some parts of the world, and I'm glad this book helped to educate me on that.

This is the first Max O'Brien mystery I've read, so I don't have the larger context around him and his con man shenanigans, but I wanted more background and insight on him. I'm guessing there's more of that in the first couple books in the series that would have given me more context for this novel.

I enjoyed the fast-paced, disparate narratives that made up the mystery, and all the different characters. I'd read another in the series.

When I read the topic on which this novel was going to focus, African albinism, I was both intrigued and excited to read. Unfortunately the addition of a seemingly odd twist with elements of a con man who was not African took the pleasure away for me. The story bounces back and forth from North America to Tanzania and other African countries. The connection is he had lost his wife and in his investigation he found a black market in human body parts—those of the albino Africans. This body market is mainly used by witch doctors and others to use body parts for cures and incantations, although this is a practice not totally limited to witch doctors. The value of an African “white” body can be upwards of $75 thousand! As the con man, Max, gets deeply involved in this story while learning about this beastly practice comes out in the novel. Learning about this abhorrent practice in a novel format might be thought to lessen the impact, but it does not. It is just plain disgusting—not the novel but the practice. Because the practice plays such a key aspect in the story, a reader must have a high tolerance for pure evil and nastiness. I found the story somewhat disjointed because of the bouncing back and forth among the several locations. From the standpoint of the social implications of African albinos and their tribulations, I’d say this book is a worthwhile read to learn more but the actual storyline is not so good and for me not enjoyable.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dundurn Press for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.. This is a fast paced, complex mystery with social implications. The story is set in Canada and various locations in Africa, mainly Tanzania. The plot takes us away from the usual wildlife parks and other tourist destinations which are the settings for many mysteries set in Africa. It gives interesting background on politics, wars, genocides, emerging African middle class, business entrepreneurs, charitable foundations, corruption amongst politicians and police, traditional superstition and witchcraft.

This is a well researched, sprawling story, taking across Africa through Zanzibar in Tanzania, into Rwanda and Uganda and concluding in British Columbia. I recognized the names of most of the African towns and cities mentioned from travel there years ago, but a map included in the book would have most helpful in following the locations in the book. There is a parallel story set in Texas which made me wonder how it could possibly be connected, but everything fits together at the end.

The plot revolves around the murder of albinos mainly in Tanzania. They were killed and mutilated for their body parts to be sold for witchcraft, magic charms and ritualistic practices. (This is not fiction). Our main character is original and interesting. Max O’Brien, a man of many aliases, is a con man who has makes a comfortable living through fraud.

At the beginning Max illegally gains 2 million dollars from a billionaire owner of a successful cell phone company. He gives half of this to a past lover who runs a foundation to stop the trafficking of body parts taken from murdered albinos and to protect those still living. This includes a safe place to stay and an education. Max is angry and dismayed when his estranged girlfriend and her adult daughter, also working for the foundation, are brutally murdered and their money seems to have vanished. He is determined to use his investigative skills to find their killers and the motivation for the crime. Soon two other people are found murdered under very similar circumstances but their connections are not easily apparent. His detective work runs him afoul with police and some dishonest politicians.

Meanwhile the scene shifts to a seniors’ residence in Texas. An elderly man, declining in physically and mentally, has walked away from the home and has disappeared. He insisted in moving there after retirement and is very distant from his wife whom he left behind. Despite being ignored, she enlists the help of her son-in-law to track him down.

I would have liked to see a chart of the various African characters and their role in the plot. The events unfold fast and furious with many twists and secrets revealed in this complicated story. When the mysteries in Africa collide with the one in Texas the plot becomes even more action packed and thrilling. . Recommended for those who enjoy mysteries set in far off places with some history of regional and tribal conflicts and politics added. I plan to read more about Max’s past exploits.