The Unquiet Dead by Ausma Zehanat Khan

Although this book is called a mystery, it is so much more than that.  This is a book that everyone should read.  It is a testament to why evil must not be allowed to exist and why no one, nations included, should be allowed to stand by and do nothing and let something like the Bosnian Muslim massacres happen again.  This is a difficult novel to read in that each chapter begins with a quote, a quote that is referenced in the Notes section as being parts of the actual testimony of survivors of the massacres.  These are real people who lived through unimaginable horrors; mothers looking for lost children, husbands searching for wives, and everyone looking for someone who was brutally murdered for no other reason than their religion.  It is a story that grapples with the question of how people who were once neighbors turned upon children, boys, mothers, and fathers.  It is, however, also a story of hope and the conviction that justice, not revenge, must prevail. 

The Unquiet Dead by Ausma Zehanat Khan is the first book in a series.  The novel is set in Canada and has two main detectives.  Esa Khattak is a second-generation Canadian Muslim and Rachel Getty, a somewhat awkward woman, who nevertheless is invaluable to Khattak as she has a passion for the truth, no matter how painful that truth may be.  Khattak has been given charge of the new Community Policing Section, a department formed to deal with sensitive issues involving minorities, including refugees.  Khattak and Getty are puzzled when they are called to investigate the death of Christopher Drayton.  Drayton fell from the cliffs and it is first assumed to be an accident.  Evidence soon comes to light that seem to point to Drayton in actuality being Lt. Colonel Dražen Kristić, a man who was directly involved in the planning and execution of over 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys.  Khattak and Getty must probe the painful memories of survivors to see if the traumatic events did have a bearing on the death or if a more current issue drove someone to push Drayton over the cliffs.

Series in order:

                               

 

Note:  A Death in Sarajevo is a novella and is available in eBook format only at this time.

For more information about the author and her books, please visit 

Ausma Zehanat Khan's website.

The White Road by Sarah Lotz

Although I don’t normally recommend books with unlikable main characters, I found The White Road to be one of those books that I couldn’t put down.   This is a book that you think you’re only going to read one more chapter before you go to sleep, and then you find out it’s 2 hours later and you have to get up for work soon!   The main character, Simon Newman, is really a hateful character, but he’s like a car crash from which you can’t seem to look away.

Simon is an adrenaline junkie who also seems to be a pretty useless human being.  When the new website that he and his friend host is not exactly causing advertisers to start dropping money in their laps, Simon decides to explore the notorious Cwm Pot caves in Wales.  Enlisting the help of a thoroughly creepy guide, Simon has a hidden agenda.  He wants to photograph the bodies of a group of young men who were trapped and died in a previous caving adventure.  (Okay, right there, the “I really don’t like this guy” crept into my thoughts.)  

Barely surviving this ordeal, Simon’s footage goes viral, and his fame and advertising revenue seems assured.  Soon, however, Simon needs another escapade to keep the excitement going and, ignoring his own precarious mental state, he agrees at the last minute to join a group who are attempting to summit on Everest. Throughout the trip Simon senses a malevolent presence that he isn’t sure is real or is a product of his own deteriorating sanity.  Simon becomes involved with other members of the expedition, including one man who is desperate to find the body of his mother who disappeared on Everest years ago.  All the while, the entity seems to haunt Simon, whether in reality or his deteriorating mind, he’s not sure.

A big part of the suspense is because you’re never sure if Simon is a reliable or unreliable narrator.  Can you believe what he’s reporting or is he hallucinating or, even more troubling, is he deliberately misrepresenting events?    The stark beauty and power of the caves and the mountains add dimension as they become almost characters in their own right.  It is truly a book that is hard to put down. Highly recommended.

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

Exit West is a truly amazing book that is so very timely.  Although it’s a slim book at 231 pages, it’s not a fast read.  It’s a book to savor and mull over and over. I read this about a month ago and I’m still thinking about passages that particularly struck a chord with me. The novel is set in a country that is about to explode into civil war.  Nadia and Saeed are the main characters. Both are Muslim, but neither is devout.  They begin to meet in secret and soon their world begins to crumble. Saeed’s father is a widower, his wife falling victim to the violence of the streets. Saeed lives with this father and becomes responsible for his well-being.   When conditions become extreme, they begin to hear whisperings about secret doors that just randomly appear; doors that have the ability to whisk people to other, safer parts of the world.  Of course, the safer parts aren’t thrilled about the influx of refugees who begin coming through the doors.  Also, passage through the doors comes at a price, not the least being the money it costs for the door guides.  It’s a book about culture, class, immigration, resistance, identity, loss of identity and so much more.