*I received both an eARC and an audio review copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

I received an audio review copy of the previous book in this series, Last Seen in Lapaz, and it blew me away so I was excited to get an advanced copy of this year’s release. Shamefully, I still have not gone back to read the first two, but hopefully I will get to them before a new book is released, because reading this reminded me of how much I love this series.

Quartey continues to tackle tough topics with such care. The way he crafts a story has me immediately immersed in the situation and he keeps the tension high throughout making the reading experience compulsive. There are a number of potential triggers throughout and moments where I struggled reading about these hate crimes, especially in today’s political climate, but I appreciated that he tackled the hypocrisy of the situation. The story emphasizes that it’s white American far-right Christians forcing anti-LGBTQ laws through governments in West Africa ignoring that queerness existed there long before Christian colonizers brought their phobias.

Adjoa Andoh’s narration was excellent as always, though listeners to the first books might be thrown off as Robin Miles narrates the first three.