THE JOSEPH SOYINKA MYSTERIES
The Joseph Soyinka Mysteries
Chris Freeman
An amateur / professional sleuth series set in the US, which centers on yellow cab driver, Joseph Soyinka, a former detective who fled from Nigeria after exposing too much corruption. Now he’s trying to make a new life for himself and for his young son Yomi in the Bronx district of New York. But police instincts die hard, and Joseph finds himself on the trail of criminals once again.
Continuity: Chiefly character (Joseph Soyinka, with Yomi and neighbor Eddie as supporting characters) and place (the varied neighborhood of the Bronx).
1. Streetwise
When Joseph comes across a murder scene while driving his cab, his detective instincts are roused – it seems an innocent young woman passenger called Tina Ferreira has been killed after an attempted hit on a cab driver. But when his close friend Cyrus is arrested for the crime and for a series of earlier shootings Joseph feels compelled to find out the truth. In undertaking his own investigations, Joseph is forced to embroil himself in a seedy – and dangerous - underworld of drugs and prostitution.
After some high risk undercover work Joseph discovers the connection between the drug dealers and Tina, establishing that she was indeed the target of the killer. With the help of Eddie, himself a retired cop, Joseph submits his evidence to the police. But his enemy has one more trick up his sleeve. Joseph must now act quickly to prevent his informant being killed and to secure the release of his innocent friend.
UK publication: August 2008
2. Tough Lessons
Hernando Lopez, a teacher at Yomi’s school, is found brutally stabbed in his locked classroom. Suspicion rests on Jermaine Letts, an unruly pupil from whom he confiscated the knife a few days before. However, when the murder weapon is shockingly linked back to Yomi himself, the police suspect this is all part of the larger gang culture. Joseph sets out to prove his son has no part in Jermaine Letts’ world and desperately needs to discover the truth about the murder in order to do so.
With Eddie in danger from the very gang of which Letts is a part, Joseph uses his detective skills to find out that a mysterious extra set of keys to the school is linked to the fact that Philip Geller, another teacher, is having an affair with Macy, a 17 year old pupil.
Joseph discovers that Letts was indeed involved in criminal activity – but proves that he could not have committed the murder and that Yomi is not part of Letts’ gang.
It is Macy’s father who has gone to the school and tragically killed Lopez, thinking him to be his daughter’s seducer.
