Genre Fiction.

Blurb ‘What would you do if the life of your precious daughter depended on stealing a mask from the most fortified museum in the world? Abigail Anaba, author of SectorIV returns with this historical political drama, The President’s Daughter. This thriller is weaved around Angela Goodmans, the president’s daughter, whose life hangs in the balance. Her father must break the Iyoba’s curse – the curse that ensures that the second child of any descendant of a Bini Queen’s little husband will die unless they perform the required rituals. But Queen Idia’s pendant was taken in 1897 and now resides in the London Historical Museum – the Fort Knox of art pieces. The British authorities will not let go of the mask, but President Goodmans is determined to get the rituals done. Will an embarrassing family secret and his political office get in the way of saving his daughter?’

Dialogue Written in English, the dialogue was simple and believable and gave credence to the story.

Themes Love, Family, Loyalty, Politics and Corruption.

Editing A few errors.

Plot Angela Goodmans, the daughter of the Nigerian President, John Goodmans is gravely ill. Her family is told that she can be cured if they are able to perform rituals using the mask of Queen Idia which was taken away by the British colonialists. The plan to get the mask from a fortified museum in London, sets off a chain of events in this historical political drama. 

What worked? Written in an easy to follow manner, The President’s Daughter is an engaging page turner. It is set in modern-day Nigeria with scenes in the United States and London.

The prologue suggests a political fantasy story but this isn’t executed in the body of the story. This worked for Lady B who doesn’t like fantasy but Mo was disappointed as she was looking forward to a mix of politics and fantasy. She would have loved to see perhaps more development of the mysterious sorceress, and the rich folklore around the Benin Kingdom.

Because it is set in modern-day Nigeria which we are both familiar with, we had issues with some parts of the story. For instance, the fact that the president had a 15-member cabinet which is a constitutional impossibility in Nigeria. You may be wondering why this under what worked? The reason is because we are not sure whether it should be an issue in the first place. The book is fiction. Should fiction mirror reality? That’s a question for you. What do you think?

The characters are intriguing but don’t always allow the reader see past the surface of who they are. Osas and Wiwa were our favourite characters. There were too many parallels between the president and former President Goodluck Jonathan and his family. We guess this is a nod to the former president

All in all, this was an enjoyable and breezy read. This story will work very well in cinemas as it is fast paced.

What didn’t work? The main issue with the book was that the ending seemed very rushed and because Abigail seemed to want to tie up loose ends before the end, the story became too pat. This made the end anticlimactic. The ending left a few questions unsatisfactorily unanswered, and points to a sequel we are interested enough to read.

The other thing was that the prologue didn’t tie up nicely with the rest of the story. The book starts out as fantasy and then barely touches on that for the rest of the story. The smoke and mirrors at the end doesn’t fully make up for this.

The dialogue worked except the scenes with the Prime Minister of Britain which didn’t seem plausible especially the introduction with the ‘mummy oyoyo.’ Also, it didn’t seem plausible that the British Government would take out people in the manner and for the reasons for which it was done.

Number of pages 241.

Publisher Self-published.

Damage $4.02 on Amazon Kindle.

Rating 6.5/10.

The President’s Daughter is available on Amazon and Bambooks. Have you read the President’s Daughter? Please share your thoughts in the comments section.