Top-drawer detective fiction is composed in equal parts of plot, character and an interesting setting evoked in such a way that it, too, becomes a narrative presence.

It's a major plus if the prose and dialogue are sufficiently fluent and realistic that the discerning reader can settle into the entertainment without the nagging suspicion that they've gone slumming.

Kwei Quartey's first novel has all those qualities in abundance, the sort of book that will delight not only hard-core mystery fans, but also those who visit the genre only casually.

Quartey, a physician who practices in the Los Angeles area, rises early to write before seeing patients. The author is the son of an African-American mother and Ghanaian father and was born and raised in his father's country, where both parents were university lecturers.

As with all good mysteries, there's a compelling sleuth, in this case the immensely likable, if far from perfect, Inspector Darko Dawson of Ghana's Criminal Investigations Department.

Based in Accra, the country's capital, he is a keen and dogged detective with sometimes severe anger-management problems and an abiding disrespect for regulations and higher authorities.

Darko has no taste for alcohol; his vice is marijuana, which he obtains by periodically rousting a petty thief and dealer. He's called in to investigate when a beautiful young medical student doing volunteer work for an anti-AIDS program is found dead along a forest path.

Darko is the obvious choice since he speaks the local language and has an aunt living in the village.

With Darko on the case, an autopsy quickly reveals the dead medical student was skillfully strangled, and the detective's investigative net soon is cast over an array of suspects, including the powerful local fetish priest.

Traditional Ghanaians are polytheists, and the priests tend shrines containing one or more sacred effigies. People convinced they've offended the gods or who believe they've been cursed through witchcraft will sometimes offer a female child to the priest as an expiating gift.

When these "wives of the gods" reach puberty, they're forced to become concubines and caretakers of the shrine's priest. The murdered woman had been locked in a struggle with the loathsome local priest over the abuse of his "wives" and had hoped to persuade at least some of them to leave the shrine.

"Wife of the Gods" is not simply an extraordinarily well-crafted mystery; it's also an extremely well-structured and deftly written novel.

It undoubtedly will be compared with Alexander McCall Smith's phenomenally successful "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" series, but Quartey's debut is a far richer and more sophisticated experience.