Take 5 with Yasmin Angoe: They Come at Knight

Congratulations to Writer Unboxed contributor, Yasmin Angoe, on the September 13^th publication of her novel, They Come at Knight, which is book two in the Nena Knight series. Book one, her debut novel, is Her Name is Knight.

Kirkus calls the novel “A second round of action-packed, high-casualty intrigue for professional assassin Nena Knight. A lethal tale of an all-but-superhero whose author promises that ‘in this story, there are no heroes.’” Publishers Weekly says, “This action-packed novel drives toward an explosive conclusion. Determined to survive devastating loss and mete out justice, Nena is a heroine readers will embrace.”

Yasmin is a first-generation Ghanaian American. In 2020, she received the Sisters in Crime Eleanor Taylor Bland Award for Emerging Writers of Color and is a proud member of SinC, Crime Writers of Color, and, Southeast Mystery Writers of America, and International Thriller Writers.

She was a middle and high school English teacher and currently works as a developmental editor and sensitivity reader in South Carolina. When not writing or editing, she is watching movies, engrossed in a new audiobook, or daydreaming about the fact she probably should be writing.

Learn more about Yasmin on her website, and follow her on Twitter.

What’s the premise of your new book?

YA: Elite assassin Nena Knight, eliminating dangerous players on the world stage for the Tribe, the powerful African business syndicate, an organization that supports the African people—until it turns on itself. Violent sieges by a paramilitary group throws the Tribe into chaos plaguing the Tribe’s territories and undermines its mission.  As the threats escalate, Nena starts to suspect a different kind of enemy at play: someone on the inside, determined to destabilize the Tribe and her father the Tribe’s leader. As this new threat closes in on her own family, Nena must root out the danger. But closing in on the truth, means risking everything she was tasked to protect—even if it means facing off with an enemy she never saw coming.

What would you like people to know about the story itself?

YA: In this book, Nena and the other characters are dealing with the repercussions of what transpired in the first. They need to keep the Tribe intact. They need to gel as a whole unit because Nena is bringing together two separate sides of her life to make it whole. There is just a deeper dive into Nena’s relationships with the people from the first while they work together to figure out who is coming for the Tribe, and the Knights, like this. It’s the first time they’ve come across a substantial threat to the family and so she’s got to stop what’s going on to preserve this life she went to hell and back to have.

What do your characters have to overcome in this story?

YA: What challenge do you set before them? Each character must reconcile with themselves and one another, the actions that occurred in the first book. The order of the Tribe and within the Knight family had been upset and they need to restore that. So there are challenges with resentment, uncertainty of one’s place within the family and organization, and a fear that permeates through all of them that this massive organization they’ve built is under fire and could be destroyed.

What unique challenges did this book pose for you, if any?

YA: The unique challenge, I guess, isn’t that unique when you’re writing a second book after a debut that people seem to really like. The challenge is creating a story that will resonate as much with the readers as the first one. I hope the readers see that while Nena still struggles with what she went through (as all survivors do sometimes) she has grown and is seeing life and her duties through new eyes.

What has been the most rewarding aspect of having written this book?

YA: The most rewarding aspect of having written this book is pushing Nena to different limits and seeing how she fairs. She is a wonderful character who has so many places to go and so much to do. Every time I’m able to dip in her life and see what she and the rest of the crew are up to, I love it. I love the world and I think it translates through the story and enables the reader to love Nena’s world too.

Congratulations, Yasmin!

Writer Unboxed

Writer Unboxed began as a collaboration between Kathleen Bolton and Therese Walsh in 2006. Since then, the site has grown to include ~50 regular contributors and a variety of guests on rotation throughout a given year.

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