First published 2012
Harrison Opoku lives on the ninth floor of a London tower block with his mother and sister after moving from Ghana. The eleven-year-old runs through the concrete corridors in his fake Adidas trainers, fascinated by everything around him. He watches the Dell Farm Crew gang members and feeds the pigeon that visits his balcony. Harrison excels as his grade's second-fastest runner while learning to navigate his new world. When someone stabs a boy to death on the high street, the police find only silence from witnesses. Harrison decides to solve the murder himself. His amateur detective work threatens to unravel the careful protection his mother has built around their family. The boy must balance his curiosity against the dangerous realities of inner-city life as he moves closer to adulthood.
Genres: fiction, coming-of-age, mystery, crime, 21st-century, urban
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Ghana, London, United Kingdom
Period: 21st Century
288 pages · Paperback · House of Anansi Press
Content warnings: violence