419 by Canadian author Will Ferguson is an intricate and compelling international crime story that gathers momentum as it goes along. The author is peeling back the layers behind a real-life internet scam that swindles the life savings from it’s victims.

Henry Curtis, retired teacher from Calgary, Alberta swerves his car into a snowy ravine, leaving behind a devastated family. It is revealed that Henry was a victim of a 419 Nigerian scam and that his death is being ruled a suicide. His daughter, Laura, sets out to track down the people she considers her father’s killers not realizing the extreme danger she is putting herself in. But there is much more to 419 than this one story, the author gives us a detailed picture of the country of Nigeria by introducing a number of other characters, telling their backstory and showing the desperation and poverty that is rife in this country.

I was riveted by this book and felt rewarded by the excellence of the story and the writing. Will Ferguson is better known as a travel writer and humorist, but he certainly put together an interesting and well researched thriller with this book. ( )

Laura's father kills himself by driving into a ditch. In the wreckage that follows anyone's death his family discovers that he has also lost almost all their money, giving it to a Nigerian person in one of those awful email scams. The widow is shocked, his son wants the criminals punished, but his daughter wants revenge.
So she travels to Lagos to to get her money back.
I spent this novel thinking, "please stop this," with increasing urgency. I remembered an ad that starts "if you're in a horror movie, you make bad choices. It's what you do," and this novel follows that pattern. I didn't empathize with the main character, but I did understand her. I was horrified enough to keep reading, and happy with the cathartic ending.
I will read more novels by Mr. Ferguson. ( )

This was a weird one for me. Absolutely NOT my normal read. While I do feel the book may have been a touch overlong, with some character stories running longer than they really needed (mostly due to a bit too much backstory), overall, even with the meandering story, it was almost always engaging.

The story does take you for a ride. Just when you think it's a murder mystery, it changes gears. Then you think it's this. Then that. Then back to the murder mystery...

Sometimes the storytelling POV did a strange flip partway through a scene that was a touch off-putting, but it was rare.

Overall though, it was the characters that made this book, that grabbed me and wouldn't let me go, long after a less well-written book would have been set aside.

As I said, not my normal read and not a story I'd be quick to jump back into again, but I did enjoy it. ( )

internet scams out of Africa one family's involvement and daughter's attempt for justice for father's resulting suicide
shows how oil companies have altered tribal life and how desperation can drive a person to do unethical yhings

While the concept of the book was fascinating - email money scams - I found some of it to be a little unbelievable. This is a very serious situation that takes place all the time and it was interesting to understand the back story of who it works in Africa. However I found some of the situations of the major character a little far fetched. Some of the risks she took likely wouldn't have turned out the way they did in the book. It was an enjoyable story but it takes some suspension of belief to read. ( )