Outlaw

A contemporary teenage novel set in Burkina Faso promises something more exotic than we expect in the more usual examples of the genre. In this respect Stephen Davies’ novel will not disappoint. His atmospheric evocation of faraway places with strange-sounding names is one of his novel’s strongest features: African sights, sounds and smells are colourfully conveyed, with what comes across as very considerable authenticity. (Readers with a limited knowledge of the terrain should – before embarking on the novel – consult its Afterword’, a valuable glossary of its less familiar details.)

Though Davies’ novel is in many ways – and particularly in its understanding and potential application of modern technological communication systems – thoroughly up to date, it leans heavily on the conventions of the old-fashioned adventure story. Indeed, its 15-year-old hero, Jake, comments early on, ‘I was hoping for adventure…but this is not what I had in mind,’ as he becomes embroiled in the complexities of African life and its decidedly murky politics. Suspended from his British boarding school, he has joined his parents and his sparky younger sister Kirsty in the BF capital, Ouagadougou, where his father is British ambassador and where, almost immediately on his arrival, he and Kirsty are kidnapped by – apparently – a gang of young terrorists. What follows is a slickly paced sequence of dramatic incidents characterised by numerous twists, turns and unexpected revelations. Nothing in Africa, Jake comes to appreciate, is as simple as it might seem. It all amounts to an engaging narrative which, with its sprinkling of tongue in cheek humour, maintains the reader’s involvement throughout.