S. Zainab would like to think she bleeds ink but the very idea makes her feel faint. She writes fantasy and horror, and is currently clutching a manuscript while groping in the dark. Find her on Twitter: @szainabwilliams.
Culling is a big part of the process of curating a “Best of” list, and while I crossed my fingers that all of my picks would make it onto the final Best Beach Reads of All Time list, I’m an editor. Whittle, I must. It pained me to cut a few of my own, but that doesn’t mean I can’t blab about these books elsewhere. So, I’m recommending a novel that didn’t make the list, that I stand by as an excellent beach/summer read. It manages to contain deep subject matter (namely, on racism, misogyny, and imperialism) in addition to all the machinations and intrigue of a thrilling spy novel. This was the first novel I’d come across with a Black woman spy as the central character, and I need more, please. If you’ve got any recommendations, let me know in the comments.
American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson
The X-Files, Fringe, and The Silence of the Lambs turned me into a fan of all forms of fiction involving women in covert roles, usually for the FBI or CIA. Not a cell in my body wants to work in government, but I cannot resist consuming this particular flavor of fiction. And so, when I heard tell of a book about a young Black woman trying to make her way as an intelligence officer for the FBI, I was all in.
For Marie Mitchell, a career with the FBI isn’t just about a job, it’s about family and legacy and following in the footsteps of her dead sister. But it’s the ’80s. It’s hard to be a woman in the force and that much harder to be a Black woman. So when Marie gets the opportunity to serve in a special task force to take down Burkina Faso’s revolutionary president, she can’t pass up the opportunity. She goes into the work of seducing and foiling Thomas Sankara committed to the mission and leaves with a changed perspective on her country and the role she wants to play in its ambitions.
American Spy is based on true events involving the real-life Thomas Sankara whose anti-imperialist policies and cultural reforms made him a target within and without Burkina Faso. The true story is as fascinating as the fiction, and the ideologies of Wilkinson’s fictional Sankara clash against Marie’s American identity and the beliefs that have been instilled in her. Marie is brilliant but flawed. She’s quick to buy into the bullshit and make excuses for her country even as she endures bias and prejudice. Hers is a challenging journey of revelation and, being the journey of a spy, one filled with danger, deception, and daring.
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