Description:
Girls from immigrant communities have been disappearing for months in the Colorado town of Blackwater Falls, but the local sheriff is slow to act and the fates of the missing girls are largely disregarded.
At last, the calls for justice become too loud to ignore when the body of a star student and refugee--the Syrian teenager Razan Elkader--is deliberately positioned in a mosque.
Detective Inaya Rahman and Lieutenant Waqas Seif of the Denver Police are recruited to solve Razan's murder, and they quickly uncover a link to other missing and murdered girls. But as Inaya gets closer to the truth, Seif finds ways to obstruct the investigation. Inaya may be drawn to him, but she is wary of his motives: he may be covering up the crimes of their boss, whose connections in Blackwater run deep.
Inaya turns to her female colleagues, attorney Areesha Adams and Detective Catalina Hernandez, for help in finding the truth. The three have bonded through their experiences as members of vulnerable groups, and now they must work together to expose the conspiracy behind the murders before another girl disappears.
A gripping thriller from one of the genre's finest writers, Blackwater Falls examines a series of crimes within the context of contemporary American politics with searing insight.
Brief description:
Ausma Zehanat Khan is the author of the award-winning Esa Khattak and Rachel Getty mystery series, which begins with The Unquiet Dead, as well as the critically acclaimed Khorasan Archives fantasy series. Her crime series featuring Detective Inaya Rahman begins with Blackwater Falls. She is also a contributor to the anthologies Private Investigations, Sword Stone Table, and The Perfect Crime. She is the former editor-in-chief of Muslim Girl magazine. A British-born Canadian and former adjunct law professor, she holds a PhD in international human rights law with a specialization in military intervention and war crimes in the Balkans.
Review Quotes:
"Inaya is a fabulous character―shrewd and stalwart, yes, but also complicated and fully fleshed-out, as is the marginalized Syrian community of Blackwater Falls."
-- "New York Times Book Review"