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by Natalie C. Anderson
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo meets Gone Girl in this enthralling murder mystery set in Kenya.
In the shadows of Sangui City, there lives a girl who doesn't exist. After fleeing the Congo as refugees, Tina and her mother arrived in Kenya looking for the chance to build a new life and home. Her mother quickly found work as a maid for a prominent family, headed by Roland Greyhill, one of the city's most respected business leaders. But Tina soon learns that the Greyhill fortune was made from a life of corruption and crime. So when her mother is found shot to death in Mr. Greyhill's personal study, she knows exactly who's behind it.
With revenge always on her mind, Tina spends the next four years surviving on the streets alone, working as a master thief for the Goondas, Sangui City's local gang. It's a job for the Goondas that finally brings Tina back to the Greyhill estate, giving her the chance for vengeance she's been waiting for. But as soon as she steps inside the lavish home, she's overtaken by the pain of old wounds and the pull of past friendships, setting into motion a dangerous cascade of events that could, at any moment, cost Tina her life. But finally uncovering the incredible truth about who killed her mother - and why - keeps her holding on in this fast-paced nail-biting thriller.
"Starred Review. Debut author Anderson, a former aid worker, deftly addresses issues in the region in this fast-paced thriller, highlighting the struggles of refugees in war-torn eastern Congo and the human rights violations that women in particular face." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. Highly recommended for teens looking for a gritty, suspenseful, immersive read driven by a tough, smart, realistic heroine. Grades 7-10." - School Library Journal
"While much of the novel is fictionalized, it exposes both the very real corruption and greed of the mining industry in Congo and the women who pay the price. The novel is peppered with Swahili words and phrases, and Anderson makes an effort to paint a picture of the country. A story full of twists and turns, proving nothing is ever as black and white as it may seem." - Kirkus
"[A] gripping tale of revenge and redemption, tracks a murderer through the jungles of Congo and the far reaches of cyberspace, shining a light on the importance of family and friendship along the way - a perfect cocktail of suspense, action and heart." - Tara Sullivan, critically acclaimed author of Golden Boy and The Bitter Side of Sweet
"City of Saints & Thieves will pull you from the very first page into a rarely seen world, violent and beautiful, where the only rule is survival and the only weapons are a young woman's courage and love." -Francisco X. Stork, award-winning author of Marcelo in the Real World and The Last Summer of the Death Warriors
"In prose as tenacious as her vendetta-driven and irresistible protagonist, Anderson interweaves personal and national tragedies, answering legacies of loss with the promise of family and friendship. City of Saints & Thieves is a world opener of a debut, one worth reading and remembering." - Ashley Hope Pérez, Printz Honor–winning author of Out of Darkness
This information about City of Saints & Thieves was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Natalie C. Anderson is an American writer and international development professional living in Geneva, Switzerland. She has spent the last decade working with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and the United Nations on refugee relief and development, mainly in Africa. She was selected as the 2014–2015 Associates of the Boston Public Library Children's Writer-in-Residence, where she wrote her debut novel, City of Saints & Thieves.
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