A Grisly Thriller of Unravelling Family Secrets
Yinka Olatunbosun
A thoroughly enjoyable read. That’s what Edify Yakusak delivers every time she creates a work of fiction. Her latest fictional prose, On a Day Like This, follows the pattern of her storytelling—lucid and intriguing. Right from her first novel, After They Left (2016), Yakusak has established herself as a compelling writer with a mastery of suspense and detailed characterisations.
With the precision of a business developer that she is, Yakusak carefully builds an obsessive plot exploring trauma through the characters in this story of an affluent yet dysfunctional family: The Dosumus. While kicking off the story in France with the protagonist, Diekara, an emerging visual artist with a bohemian persona, the writer tells a story of the late Mrs. Dosumu, who is believed to have died in a Lagos car crash.
As the plot thickens with every layer of discovery, the truth is saved for last. Weaving a romantic story along with crime, the writer assembles stereotypical characters in Victoria and Demola. Victoria is haunted by childhood trauma that helps to build the suspense in this story. Her persona evolves through a slow-burn love story of a physiotherapist who falls in love with a rich client, Demola Dosumus, a new widower. Becoming a stepmother to adult children was in itself a conflict, but a bigger conflict resides in solving the mystery behind the death of Mrs. Sayo Dosumu, an heiress to a generational wealth.
Using simple yet elevated language as well as episodic narrative technique, Yakusak creates an easy read with a near-cinematic appeal. Lacing the plot with flashback techniques, the writer uncovers the mental state of the characters, allowing the reader to see through their eyes—perhaps to empathise with them regardless of their flaws.
With themes of love, betrayal, death, mental health, and childhood trauma, this thriller takes off on a sultry note and climaxes in complete chaos, leaving in its trail shock, more deaths, and an unexpected villain.
As a subtle commentary on corruption, On a Day Like This treats a sub-plot of the dark side of life where drug peddling and crime are intertwined. Using the influence of the character of Douglas, Junior’s image as a spoilt rich kid living a life of debauchery is deconstructed, making him an abominable son and a direct product of a dysfunctional home. The culpability of the Nigeria Police in crime resolution was jabbed at through the planned kidnap and drug peddling account.
Pinning the suspense on the mystery tale told by a stranger, the quest to solve a crime rests heavily on Diekara and her lover, Nonso. Together, they set out to uncover the truth about Mrs. Sayo Dosumu’s death without the help of the police.
From sidestepping improbable truths to masking a heightened suspicion, the lovers brainstorm and strategise on how to seek justice for late Mrs. Sayo Dosumu, a flamboyant wife, socialite, and mother of three.
Again, the women in Yakusak’s psychological thriller novel are typically very strong. Whether intellectually or economically empowered, each one is portrayed as goal-orientated and confident. In this novel, the author experiments with switching gender roles in the Diekara-Nonso relationship. While Nonso does the cooking—considered traditionally as a feminine task—his lover, Diekara, sometimes drives the car while her boyfriend takes the passenger seat. Still, Victoria is seen as the stereotypical African woman who is generally seen as the homemaker, who keeps a garden and remains submissive to her husband. She deviates yet again from this societal construct of the female and insists on Deji driving her to the market.
While navigating the intricacies of suppressed memories, the author peels off the layers of characters to reveal their darkest fears. While Demola seeks professional help for his mental health, Victoria faces her inner conflict manifested in physical symptoms like unexplained pain, headaches, dissociation, and a feeling of being disconnected from herself and her immediate environment. Hinged on a tinge of crime, ‘On A Day Like This’ is cultured on the profane as the writer guides the reader in harvesting dirty family secrets.
In this adult fiction, the treatment of the character of Junior captures an air of hopelessness culminating into a tragic end for a number of characters. Indeed, every character is well-developed as the author adopts the single-frame approach in introducing them in every chapter of the book. Using physical description, action, inner thoughts, reactions, and speech, the writer creates plausible and relatable characters.
Prior to this riveting story, Yakusak had released a collection of short stories titled The Curse of Happiness, which is her second literary effort.
