Operation: Finding Pacesetters

Where is the Pacesetters Series? I searched bookshops in order to get an answer to this question. In Kaduna, the variety of bookshops on the road to one of the city’s commercial centres, the Central Market area, flaunted other books without the bold letters ‘Pacesetters,’ usually at the top of every copy I read. In […]

Where is the Pacesetters Series? I searched bookshops in order to get an answer to this question. In Kaduna, the variety of bookshops on the road to one of the city’s commercial centres, the Central Market area, flaunted other books without the bold letters ‘Pacesetters,’ usually at the top of every copy I read. In Abuja, the story was the same. Names and titles not older than a decade flooded bookshelves. Where are the ncontemporary Pacesetter   novels? Created in 1977, they used to have titles that made me thirst for the adventure within – ‘Finger of Suspicion,’ ‘The Delinquent,’ ‘Mark of the Cobra,’ ‘The Instrument,’ ‘The Worshippers’ and so on. Then the authors, Mohammed Sule, Chuma Nwokolo, Kalu Okpi, Buchi Emecheta, Victor Thorpe and many more. Where are these titles and their authors? What happened to Macmillan, the brain behind the novel series? Fortunately, but sadly, somewhere inside Kaduna’s central market, in a stationery store built with wood and zinc, that also serves as a bookshop, I found just two copies of Pacesetters novels. They were not recent stories and need I try that hard? But my search had just begun.
Next was the online option. Although allergic to e-copies I wanted to discover the whereabouts of the series (Pacesetters) I used to hold in awe beside other non-African favourites, including, James Hadley Chase and Nick Carter- Kill-master, a series of spy adventures published from 1964 until 1990.  Online, I monitored conversation on a social network where Peter Nwankwo (not real name) opened the discussion with “does anyone remember the Pacesetters novels? I was a major fan as I read many of its titles including ‘The Instrument,’ ‘The Worshippers,’ ‘Mark of the Cobra’ and so on. It was a very successful series but unfortunately could not survive the drought that attacked Nigeria’s reading culture in the late 1980s.” I was glad I was not alone in this mission. Almost immediately, several avid readers pounced on the question with contributions about the great works in the series that shaped their teenage years and how they had devoured title after title. As they conversed, the vital question was raised? Where can one find the Pacesetters novels in Nigeria?
Abdullahi Shehu (not real name) who is one of those that scampered off to purchase the books once hearing they were available in e-copies weeks ago, waded into the conversation: “Isn’t it just so disheartening when those experiences that gave you pleasure in your earlier years fail to give the same spark when you come across them again? For example, you watch those comedic shows of your childhood and wonder what you found funny in the first place. I was dreading the same personal emotional transformation, after I ordered a pacesetter novel online. Who can forget those Pacesetters novels, with those funny illustrations on the cover and catchy titles? It took me no more than a sitting to read a title, a worthy companion those lonely nights in boarding school. The title I ordered was ‘Teardrops at Sunset,’ one I hadn’t read before. And well, was the spark still evident? My literary palate has obviously matured with age and I am a lot more critical now than I was then. In some places, the book read like the writing of an imaginative secondary school pupil whose primary ability was spinning a good yarn. Trouble was about to ‘burst’ in some instances for example, or characters were crossing ‘parlours’ to enter their bedrooms.
He continues: “But the storyline, as it should be at this level, is its saving grace. It is almost compelling at times, and slightly ridiculous in others with obvious holes. Of course, these books are meant for a much younger audience than this old daddy. And looking back, I am less harsh on myself for being so enamoured with this series. As a matter of fact I have just ordered a few more.”     
Offline, I spoke with George Okewih, once a die-hard Pacesetters’ reader. “The reading culture in Nigeria has died. If you’re a writer you’ve to follow the trend of e-copies which some African publishers don’t. In such a case, only those read for academic purpose can survive,” he says.
Okewih explains that he has branched into reading books written by non-Africans, such as Jeffery Archer and John Grisham. “I read ‘Stop Press Murder,’ ‘Vicious Circle’ and others I can’t recall,” he says about Pacesetters. “But now I doubt if I will still enjoy them because I’m reading more advanced books.”  
Now, the Pacesetters Series has a website “dedicated to projecting the series and bringing you these timeless collectibles and keepsakes. It brings good African literature to areas outside Africa where African reads are more difficult to get hold of. It is hoped that this site will enhance the standing of the series in the market, encourage the already published novels back into print, and encourage publishing of new titles,” it reads.
A prompt credited to Macmillan publishers says: “No other series has captured the public imagination like Pacesetters, stories of romance, espionage, danger, intrigue and mystery written by outstanding writers whose work you will want to read again and again.”
Perhaps some Africans would attest to that. However, It is obvious that Macmillan plans to come back – with a bang – as they venture into reprinting old copies of the Pacesetters Series, while hatching a plan to unveil a series that would make room for fresh authors who were perhaps adolescents when Pacesetters was then ‘setting the pace.’