Kwei Quartey

Kwei Quartey wrote crime novels in the early mornings before going to his clinic, and kept that up for about 20 years. The Missing American, published in 2020, made the final list for the Edgar Award for best novel.

Accra to Los Angeles

Kwei Jones Quartey was born in Accra. His father was Ghanaian and his mother African-American, and both taught at the University of Ghana. Their house was full of books, and he wrote his first "novel" at eight or nine. He attended Achimota School and Accra Academy and started at the University of Ghana Medical School, but after his father died his mother took the family to the United States. He qualified in medicine at Howard University in Washington, trained in internal medicine, and from 1990 worked as an urgent care physician with HealthCare Partners in California, where he set up the wound care centre. A UCLA extension course in creative writing got him started as a novelist.

Darko Dawson and more

His first Inspector Darko Dawson mystery, Wife of the Gods (2009), made the Los Angeles Times bestseller list. The series continued with Children of the Street (2011), Murder at Cape Three Points (2014) and Gold of Our Fathers (2016). He also wrote Death at the Voyager Hotel (2014). The G.O.G. National Book Club named him Best Male Author in 2010, and he belongs to the Los Angeles chapter of Sisters in Crime.