An Amazon Best Book of the Month: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
“This stunning debut…deftly balances action, interpersonal relationships, issues of trauma, and profound human questions in an unforgettable novel.” —Library Journal (starred review)
“A parable of reclaiming personal and tribal identity by seizing power at all costs.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Angoe expertly builds tension by shifting between her lead’s past and present lives. Thriller fans will cheer Aninyeh every step of the way.” —Publishers Weekly
“Her Name Is Knight by Yasmin Angoe is a dazzling, suspenseful tale of international intrigue and revenge with a protagonist who is as deadly as she is beautiful.” —The Guardian
“…an action-packed thriller you can lose yourself in.” —POPSUGAR
“Memorable characters, drama, heart-pounding danger…this suspenseful novel has it all.” —Woman’s World
“This fast-moving and action-filled spy thriller addresses some of the darker events that dominate American headlines about West African nations—from mass kidnapping to violent conflict—but the story is told from an nuanced perspective by its Ghanaian American author, and has a redemptive arc.” —Oprah Daily
“A crackerjack story with truly memorable characters. I can’t wait to see what Yasmin Angoe comes up with next.” —David Baldacci, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“Yasmin Angoe’s debut novel, Her Name Is Knight, is an amazing action packed international thriller full of suspense, danger, and even romance. It’s like a John Wick prequel except John is a beautiful African woman with a particular set of skills.” —S. A. Cosby, award-winning author of Blacktop Wasteland
“It’s hard to believe that Her Name Is Knight is Yasmin Angoe’s debut novel. This dual timeline story about a highly trained Miami-based assassin who learns to reclaim her power after having her entire life ripped from her as a teenager in Ghana is equal parts love story, social commentary, and action thriller. Nena Knight will stay with you long after you’ve read the last word, and this is a must-read for fans of Lee Child and S. A. Cosby. I found myself crying in one chapter and cheering in the next. I couldn’t put it down!” —Kellye Garrett, Anthony, Agatha, and Lefty Award–winning author
“This was a book I couldn’t put down. Yasmin Angoe does a brilliant job of inviting you into a world of espionage and revenge while giving her characters depth and backstory that pull the reader in even more. This story has depth, excitement, and heartbreaking loss all intertwined into an awesome debut. The spy thriller genre has a new name to look out for!” —Matthew Farrell, bestselling author of Don’t Ever Forget
“This brave and profoundly gorgeous thriller takes readers to places they’ve never been, to challenges they’ve never faced, and to judgments that leave the strongest in tears. Her Name Is Knight is a stunning and important debut, and Yasmin Angoe is a fantastic new talent.” —Hank Phillippi Ryan, USA Today bestselling author of Her Perfect Life
“Her Name Is Knight is a roundhouse kick of a novel—intense, evocative, and loaded with character and international intrigue. Nena Knight is a protagonist for the ages and one readers will not soon forget. Her Name Is Knight isn’t just thrills and action, either—the book lingers with you long after you’ve finished. More, please.” —Alex Segura, acclaimed author of Star Wars Poe Dameron: Free Fall, Secret Identity, and Blackout
★ 10/08/2021
DEBUT This stunning debut features a protagonist who elicits awe and compassion. Life in N'nkakuwe, Ghana, was peaceful until the arrival of Paul, who leaves death and destruction in his wake. Aninyeh and other girls from the village are kidnapped and brought to France; Aninyeh eventually escapes her captor but discovers that life on the streets of Paris is dangerous. When she saves a wealthy businesswoman (Delphine Knight) from muggers, Aninyeh is invited to join Delphine's family in London. Despite her new security, Nena (as she now calls herself) is always afraid. Soon she channels her pain into fighting and gets involved with an international pan-Africanist organization called the Tribe. Nena, given the operative name Echo, becomes the Tribe's best assassin. When Echo is assigned to kill a public prosecutor, she questions her orders for the first time, and her misgivings increase when she feels an irresistible pull to the man and his daughter. Then she encounters one of the men responsible for the genocide in her village and starts down a path that will have devastating consequences. VERDICT Angoe deftly balances action, interpersonal relationships, issues of trauma, and profound human questions in an unforgettable novel.
09/27/2021
Aninyeh, the captivating heroine of Angoe’s impressive debut, had an idyllic childhood as a chieftain’s daughter in a Ghanaian village. Then, when she was 14, an enemy of her father, along with a group of barbaric men, ransacked her village, slaughtered her family, and sold her into captivity. Aninyeh eventually escaped and was found by Delphine Knight, who took her to London. There, Anniyeh was adopted by Delphine and her husband, Noble, the leader of the African Tribal Council (aka the Tribe), a business group devoted to uniting the various African countries into a strong economic force. Aninyeh now lives in Miami, Fla., and is part of an assassination team that protects the Tribe’s interests, killing its enemies when necessary. Things go awry on a mission for the Tribe when, instead of assassinating the intended target, a federal attorney with whom she has become close, Aninyeh kills another person. Meanwhile, after learning the same man who led the attack on her village has joined the Tribe, she plots her revenge. Angoe expertly builds tension by shifting between her lead’s past and present lives. Thriller fans will cheer Aninyeh every step of the way. Agent: Melissa Edwards, Stonesong. (Nov.)
Narrator Tamika Katon-Donegal delivers Angoe’s debut thriller with the intensity it deserves. The plot has two interwoven timelines: The “before” chapters provide the backstory of Nena Knight as a teen in Ghana; the “after” chapters bring us into her current life as an assassin living in Miami. Katon-Donegal shines in the “before” chapters, delivered in the first person with a poetic rhythm. Her voicing of the terror and violence of Nena’s kidnapping and the destruction of her village is at once captivating and horrifying. While those scenes seem too real, Nena as the elite assassin leans to superhero fantasy. Katon-Donegal uses her skills with pace, tone, and accent to differentiate the many characters. The audiobook comes together to deliver a highly impactful listen. E.Q. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
2021-09-29
A debut whose larger-than-life heroine is a Miami-based assassin for the African Tribal Council.
This novel begins with a series of trigger warnings, so you can be sure you’re in for a wild ride with Nena Knight, nee Aninyeh Ama Asym, code-named Echo, as she alternately takes down her people’s enemies and explains the background that made her who she is. Shuttling back and forth between Aninyeh’s childhood in N’nkakuwe, a village in Ghana led by her father, Michael Asym, and a present in which Nena and her crack team methodically execute enemies of the Tribe, Angoe presents Michael’s betrayal by his old school friend Paul Frempong; the deaths of Michael and most of his family members; the gang rape of Aninyeh and the burning of the village; Aninyeh’s sale into slavery; her escape and adoption by Noble Knight, High Council of the Tribe; and her training as a skilled assassin. Nena’s violent but satisfying life is upended when she unexpectedly meets Cortland Baxter, a U.S. federal attorney targeted by the Tribe at the request of wealthy businessman Lucien Douglas, whom the Council is eager to add to their numbers, and decides that she can’t kill him, at least partly because she’s falling for him. The stakes in her disobedience rapidly mount as she realizes she’s not the only person to walk away from the massacre at N’nkakuwe and assume a new identity.
A parable of reclaiming personal and tribal identity by seizing power at all costs.
