Two Times Murder

October 15, 2024
Oyebanji introduced hero Greg Abimbola in A Quiet Teacher (2022), and readers have been longing for a second dose of this shy and self-effacing prep school teacher ever since. Prayers are answered, and it seems that a series is officially underway. A copper at sixes and sevens over a dead body seeks Abimbola's talents in making an ID, and we're brought again into the brutal espionage world. Then a trustee of Abimbola's gilt-edged prep school falls from a high balcony--death by suicide, or murder? His reluctant inquiry leads through a dodgy payday loan racket and perfumed "sugar daddy" world. It's a pleasure to watch the deductive razzmatazz, but readers can't forget that dying can hurt: amidst the drama is a solemn moment of discovery where we get to see the heart's behavior during the fall, impact, and death. The first novel of the series was presented, and received, as a mix of John le Carr� and Agatha Christie, and now Oyebanji adds some Arthur Conan Doyle into the mix.

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Starred review from November 1, 2024
The second in Oyebanji's A Quiet Teacher series doubles down on his hero's skills and determination. Gregory Abimbola is a complicated fellow with an incredible past. He's the biracial British child of an African father and a Russian mother, brought up in a country where his "very skin was a scandal." He's a former Russian agent who's hiding out in Pittsburgh after a failed attempt to kill him in Djibouti, teaching Russian and French to students at a private school whose privileged parents' simplistic notions of race and culture are a constant source of frustration. Everywhere he turns there's a murder that needs to be investigated and no one as equipped as he is to solve it. Now, a local police detective asks him to identify a body found in the river; a spurned suburban wife wants him to prove that her ex-husband's death was not a suicide; and worst of all, a former colleague from the Russian Intelligence Agency orders him to discover--and dispatch--the killer of a fellow agent, threatening harm to his mother if he balks. There's scant reward for success and danger lurking in failure, but as in Abimbola's first foray into detection proved inA Quiet Teacher (2022), his code of honor makes it impossible for him turn his back on those who need him. Oyebanji makes the unimaginable not only credible but compelling by exposing Abimbola's rich inner life and setting it against the struggles of those who rely on him for help, most of whom can't get out of their own way, but nevertheless command readers' sympathy for their challenges. Oyebanji's puzzles are well-crafted and his solutions ingenious, leaving readers with both a sense of satisfaction and an appetite for more. Not to be missed.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 30, 2024
Oyebanji (A Quiet Teacher) serves up a fun if far-fetched second thriller featuring spy–turned–math teacher Greg Abimbola. After helping solve a murder at the elite Pittsburgh school where he works, Greg wants to lay low and avoid detection by the Russian intelligence agency from which he’s defected. When a man is found dead in the Allegheny River, however, Pittsburgh PD Sgt. Rachel Lev begs for Greg’s help solving the crime, and he acquiesces—in part because he knows more about the killing than he’s letting on. Then a board member at Greg’s school falls from his apartment balcony to his death, and the former secret agent starts to worry Russian spies are hot on his trail. Greg remains a unique and appealing protagonist—a Black Russian with a keen eye for detail and conflicted feelings about his homosexuality—and Oyebanji utilizes him well, especially when Greg explains his deductions like a 21st-century Miss Marple. The plot’s locked-room mystery and espionage thriller elements make uneasy bedfellows, however, and Oyebanji fails to make Greg’s superspy background believable. It’s a mixed bag. Agent: Brady McReynolds, Jabberwocky Literary.