Book Launch: The Abduction Squad by John Kiriamiti

Some names need no introduction. John Kiriamiti is one of them — and this September he returns with The Abduction Squad, published under our Spear Books imprint.

What the story is about

Tom Baraza is handed the job of Police Commissioner by the President himself, after the man who held the post dies without warning. Baraza is not convinced the death was innocent. He is also quick to work out that his appointment comes with a price: there is something the President needs done, and it is not the kind of task that appears in any official file.

Baraza’s answer is startling. Rather than reach for the men in uniform, he proposes building a unit from the country’s most dangerous convicts — killers and thieves, many of them already condemned to die — each chosen for a particular talent. The President says yes. The squad is assembled. Their orders are to break certain people out of prison.

What follows is a novel that keeps the pressure on from the first page, and quietly asks an uncomfortable question along the way: when the state uses criminals to do its work, where exactly does justice sit?

About the author

John Kiriamiti needs little introduction to Kenyan readers. My Life in Crime reached people who had never thought of themselves as readers and kept them turning pages long past bedtime, and he has been the country’s foremost crime novelist ever since. His other titles include My Life with a Criminal, The Sinister Trophy, Son of Fate and My Life in Prison.

Away from the page, he has spent years doing the harder, quieter work of second chances — helping street children and former robbers rebuild their lives in his home town of Murang’a.

Launch details

• Date: Thursday, 24th September 2026
• Time: From 10:00 a.m.
• Venue: The EAEP stand, Nairobi International Book Fair

The author will be there in person, so bring your copy — or pick one up on the day — and have it signed. Whether you have followed his writing for decades or are meeting him for the first time, it promises to be a memorable morning.

And if Thursday does not work for you, there is still plenty to come for. We have launches running daily at our stand from 23rd to 27th September 2026, so there is something happening every day of the Fair.

Don’t miss it. We look forward to seeing you there.