Last Seen in Lapaz is a hard-hitting story that unfolds slowly and dispassionately, almost as though author Kwei Quartey had to keep a distance between himself and the brutality that can threaten to overwhelm these pages.

When her dreams of a career in the police force were dashed, twenty-six-year-old Emma Djan found that she has a knack for being a private investigator, and she needs all of her skills to find missing eighteen-year-old Ngozi as well as the killer of Ngozi's boyfriend, Femi.

Ngozi's story often takes a backseat to Femi's, who is a handsome young man to whom money means everything. Femi's attempts to get rich don't come to much until he is released from prison and joins forces with an old friend who's into human trafficking. Femi learns the ins and outs of the new business quickly and soon branches out to the more lucrative sex trafficking and prostitution. The evil that Femi does is shown when Emma finds one of his trafficked clients who managed to escape a Libyan detention center. Last Seen in Lapaz does have scenes of torture and rape, but they are not gratuitous and they are not drawn out; they tell of the incredible brutality desperate immigrants often face when all they want-- all they've paid for-- is the way to a better life for themselves and their loved ones.

The only tiny quibbles I had with the book are its slow pace, its dispassionate tone that kept me from being completely drawn into the story, and the occasional scenes where the characters spoke in pidgin, which tried to tie my brain up in knots. Thankfully, a glossary is provided.

I can see readers passing this book by because of the subject matter and because they don't read to be upset. I can understand that. But sometimes greater understanding comes from reading outside your comfort zone and being upset. Author Kwei Quartey opens the door to a part of the world that few Americans know anything about. His previous series featuring police detective Darko Dawson and this series featuring young Emma Djan have not only entertained me, but they've also taught me a great deal about West Africa, and I appreciate that so very much.

The third book in the Emma Djan private investigator series takes the reader through the twists and many turns to find out why a woman has disappeared. Djan is working to find Ngozi, a Nigerian woman who disappeared, along with her boyfriend Femi, who went missing in Accra. When Femi turns up murdered, Djan tries to piece together what happened and is determined to find Ngozi. During the investigation, more issues come to light such as trafficking and prostitution.
As with previous Quartey books, the emphasis on current social issues in Ghana is a primary concern and Quartey does not shy away from difficult topics, as disconcerting as they may be to read about. His descriptions of Ghana and Nigeria are highly detailed and readers who enjoy books with vibrant settings will like this one. Unlike his previous books, the focus is more on the victim and his backstory, leaving Djan's role to feel a bit redundant. Overall, a gripping mystery that includes difficult social issues and a highly detailed setting.

I eagerly awaited book 3 of the Emma Djan series. Last Seen in Lapaz was not what I expected at all. It opens as usual reintroducing readers to all of the main characters, and the early elements of their latest case. How the rest of the novel unfolds left me puzzled, but I went with it to get through the story. I wasn't expecting the book to spend so much time on the victim's back story. He becomes a central character who, if not for the fact that he gets murdered, could spin off into his own book. I am more accustomed to books going back and forth in time to reveal how a character's backstory plays into the events that lead up to their demise. Spending such a large portion of the book on the details of this character's life was a little irritating. I have read other comments about this book stating their appreciation of the light shed on human trafficking, and the characters using Nigerian pidgin, and I also appreciated that. I would have preferred Femi's story alternating with the detectives uncovering clues and solving the mystery.

Emma Djan and her fellow private investigators are asked to find the young daughter of a Nigerian man. She has taken up with a low-life fellow and moved to Ghana, but has vanished. And that's not the only mystery they need to solve.

With the Emma Djan series, the author has been painting with a darker palette, addressing various social issues, and this one is the darkest yet. The flashy boyfriend spent time in a miserable prison before joining a friend in a profitable business: expediting the smuggling of migrants through North Africa toward Europe. Then he graduates to running an upscale brothel, bringing his young girlfriend in as a colleague. Quartey takes us there: to the prison, the brothel, and the experience of being smuggled in a doomed attempt to have a better life. While it moves the focus away from solving the mystery (and from the winning character of Emma Djan), it creates a rich background - with some of the dialogue in Nigerian pidgin - exploring the why of the crimes underlying the missing person case. Though the armchair traveler may decide she doesn't want to live there, Quartey's West Africa is a fascinating place to visit.

P I Emma Djan returns in Last Seen in Lapaz, a novel written by Ghanian author Kwei Quartey,
This is the third book in the series in which this female private investigator solves a mystery that takes us on a journey through many twists and turns and multiple fascinating characters that inhabit West Africa.
In Nigeria, Djan is working to find the daughter of old family friends. The parents believe that she left to be with her wealthy boyfriend. Then the boyfriend turns up dead.

It turns out that the boyfriend was part of a sex-trafficking network in which girls from Nigeria and Ghana became unwittingly enslaved. Djan travels the sordid world in her continued search to find the missing daughter before she, too, turns up dead.

Quartey always included disturbing social issues in his novels and this one follows suite. In his capable hands Djan is a strong woman working in a male-centric environment who is quite human and determined. Her social conscience is strong and her work causes her great distress.

The landscape is quite real as are all of his characters. I never want his books to end and upon finishing Last Seen in Lapaz I began to hunger for the rest. Instead I am going back and rereading the first in the series, The Missing American.