Rose

    ‘The most beautiful women in the world were African. Somali women wrapped in robes suffused with purple, vermillion, pink. Around their necks beads of amber that, rubbed together, emitted electricity and the scent of lemons and honey. Women of the Horn who peered through veils of gold, strands in the shape of tinkling eardrops. They stood veiled in black from head to toe, their longing compressed into kohl-edged eyes. In the Mountains of the Moon, Dinka women, dark and smooth as the darkest smoothest wood, tall and statuesque within beaded corsets that would be cut open only on their wedding nights. And the women of the Gold Coast in golden chains, bells, bracelets, dancing in skirts of golden thread in rooms scented by cinnamon, cardamom, musk.’

    "Not merely...our best writer of suspense, but one of the our best writers, period."

- The New York Times Book Review