Before the Obsession with Thrillers

I am back again with the hype about home-written thrillers.

I have not been writing for quite long. In fact, I wrote my first book “Courage to go on” in 2005. It was published three years later. The book tells the story of a brilliant village boy, Vershima who must strive through the hardship of boarding school if he must obtain a high school certificate, while his parents could hardly afford the fees. Prof. David Iornem wrote in his forward to the book, “…I can see a Cyprian Ekwensi in Kurannen. This book is a tribute to the great writer who has died at this time the book is making its debut...” It is hard to take it that in my first attempt, I was likened to a great Nigerian author like Ekwensi. I am not Cyprian Ekwensi. I can never write the way Ekwensi wrote; not even close to that. He is one of the greatest writers Nigeria has had. But this comment made me understand one thing, that I had that raw talent to write.

My second book The Quest was published this year. The Quest tells the hilarious story of a young man who must survive high school at an age he thinks is too old as he plunges into one bizarre circumstance after another.

Then came the strong desire to write thrillers. When my friend, Mandy started feeding me with thrillers, the focus shifted. I began to think on how I could contribute not only to what existed but to what was significantly missing. First were the story lines. The bulk of Nigerian authors, even within Africa have been writing on war, family problems and witchcraft. I once told a friend that I am tired of the stereotyped Biafran story. Yes, I am. The relevance of the civil war can never be taken away.  It is a fundamental part of the Nigerian history but we have present problems. To those who would say I am wrong, that is their opinion, but I don’t believe in witchcraft in the modern world. It is a distraction from practicality and an insult to human intellect. So I can’t sit and write a whole book about a family living in Lagos or Abuja who can’t give birth and they say it is a curse from their village or a relative or enemy or whatever is using black power to stop them from giving birth. While I don’t discourage any writer from putting down whatever he wants and best suits his comfort, I encourage those who think the same way I do.

In just about four years, I think I have read what works for thrillers and does not more than any writer in this part of the world. My first attempt to write a thriller was a detective story set in Lagos. The story line was good, but lacked a lot of substance. First time. It was a big step. I wrote another, a legal thriller, Grisham-influenced, set in Kaduna. It was better. I gave it out and received a lot of encouragement. I dumped both manuscripts. Then I wrote what I now call the big one: On the Run. Don’t misunderstand me. I’ve not written the perfect book. Is there such thing as a perfect book? I can agree with a masterpiece, but there is no such thing as a perfect book. On the Run is not a masterpiece, but it is something Nigerians have not read from a Nigerian author, and probably have been waiting for. What I believe is when the book finally gets published, people are going to love it. Think about a female protagonist, 50 million dollars, a drug lord, a dangerous and desperate President who must be stopped. Set in modern day Nigeria, precisely Lagos and Abuja, On the Run tells the story of one woman’s desire for revenge taking her deep into a dangerous web of corruption, dark secrets, unstoppable ambitions and murder where the only way to survive is to fight back evil that originates from the top of the country’s leadership.

I still write plain, straightforward stories. While I’m writing my present novel, I am working on a short story for children. But my main focus is to participate in filling the void. Writing thrillers is not my comfort zone, in fact, I said in my previous post that it is very challenging. It is not simple. But to anything that would bring this genre to stay, I am gladly part of it.

The Long Wait for Thrillers from Nigeria:

I have not read a lot of books. I don’t need to read a lot to stumble over a thriller by a Nigerian author. It is a genre Nigerian writers have not exploited. Probably because Nigerian publishers are more interested in getting a book on the school curriculum. So there is a lot of literary fiction everywhere read mostly for examination purposes. Everyone is afraid there is no market for thrillers in Nigeria. But how can there be a market? Until we write. I appreciate the efforts of writers like Adimchinma Ibe, Uche Eze Al…the least has already exhausted, who are paving the way for upcoming writers like us. I fell in love with thrillers around 2005. That is not too long ago, huh? Other people fell in love with James Hardley Chase, Tom Clancy, Sheldon when they were 6. A lot of Isaac Asimov’s should have introduced me to this kind of novels, but reading was not my thing. It is still not but I am learning to grow out of it. I was almost 20 when I took a novel on my own and read without having to write exams about it, Eddie Iroh’s Without a Silver Spoon. That’s late to start reading and then feel that a year after, you could write a book. But I did. I drew inspiration from Without a Silver Spoon. I wrote my first story worthy to be a book in 2005 in two weeks. A professor, David Iornem helped me publish it in 2008. I knew little, no, nothing about book publishing. There was no good editor to work on the book so it came out almost in that draft state that I wrote it. It was like a first step; it was awkward. That awkward step is why I am saying today, three years after, that I have completed a manuscript titled ON THE RUN that would be anyone’s idea of a high-concept thriller set in our own modern day Nigeria. ON THE RUN tells the story of a hard-fighting female NDLEA undercover agent, Kathryn Zoho’s struggle to expose corruption in a system where everyone including Supreme Court judges have been bought, after she had been framed and declared wanted. I read my first thriller around 2005, John Grisham’s The Street Lawyer given to me by a friend. That was when I fell in love with crime fiction. I had told my friend, Mandy, who gave me the book that I must write a book like that. I had exhibited creativity in other aspects like fine arts—that is what I can trace to my childhood, I think the very moment I knew how to scribble. I was going to study fine arts and graphics. My father made me study estate management—I never knew what estate management was and I feel I couldn’t have studied anything better. Now I hardly draw. If I am not working in the day as an estate surveyor and valuer, I am trying to write that great Nigerian thriller at night. It’s something I enjoy passionately. I couldn’t have discovered myself earlier. But if I did, Nigerians would have been reading my books earlier. I am doing my best now to continue being a writer. And a better one. Breaking into writing thrillers is challenging, because of how complex the storyline always is—a lot of characters, twists, fast-paced action, suspense and all the other elements. It is a challenge I enjoy for the sake of self-fulfillment and to offer Nigerians a new thing—something that has been greatly missing. I have not traveled a lot but where I have been, probably in just three states, I see a lot of young people read novels—thrillers. And those novels are all from Western authors. So I wonder whether it is the reading culture that is bad or we the writers as well are not diverse. I am here to help fill a void that is as old as Nigerian literature itself. Also to feed an audience that I strongly believe would welcome this new dawn in Nigerian literature.

I leave you with a synopsis of ON THE RUN.

A desperate President.

A ruthless drug lord.

Fifty million dollars.

One angry woman.

Death in their wake.

Framed for arms dealing in the Niger-Delta uprising, young female NDLEA undercover agent, Kathryn Zoho’s only way out is stealing fifty million dollars. As she plans an escape, one of her accomplices, a bank security guard resurfaces as disgruntled EFCC secret agent Nicholas Bassey with a shocking revelation that leads them to a web of corruption, lies and a secret criminal empire that roots right from the country’s leadership. Now on a collision course with a desperate, dangerous President, and a ruthless drug lord on her trail to recover fifty million dollars, Kate and Nicholas would have to throw in everything as they vie to dismantle a clandestine criminal empire and disrupt a scheme that would put one man in power forever.