When the body of a young Muslim girl is found at a local mosque in Blackwater Falls, Detective Inaya Rahman and other members of Denver's Community Response Unit (CRU) are called in to take charge of the investigation. There have been sustained charges of the harassment of minorities filed against the local sheriff, and no one wants to see this town turn into a powderkeg.
Rahman and her partner, former trauma therapist Catalina Rivera Hernandez, have barely begun when they learn that other young girls from the immigrant community have gone missing, and their fates have been largely ignored. Finding a link between the death of young Razan Elkader and the missing girls, Rahman discovers that the leader of the CRU, Lieutenant Waqas Seif, is finding ways to obstruct the investigation. Wary of his motives, she relies on her partner Catalina and local civil rights attorney Areesha Adams for help in finding the truth before another young girl goes missing.
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When you open Blackwater Falls, you immediately fall into a story of racial tensions, faith, prejudice, and fear, and author Ausma Zehanat Khan is a master of pulling readers into an unfamiliar world and making them feel a part of it. This is the sort of book many of us need to read in order to understand what immigrants and minorities have to endure every day, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if some readers find it an uncomfortable experience.
Detective Inaya Rahman is an interesting character. Daughter of Afghan-Pakistani parents and sibling to two younger sisters, Inaya has only recently stopped wearing the hijab. Formerly of the Chicago Police Department, she fled an untenable situation to become a member of Denver, Colorado's Community Response Unit (CRU). Described by another character as being "as biddable as a musk ox," her stubbornness and tenacity make her a good investigator, but she needs to learn when to dig in her heels and when to make a strategic retreat.
As good and compelling a read as Blackwater Falls is, I felt that it suffers a bit from Too Much Syndrome (TMS). In this case, much of the TMS is due to setting up her characters and the background, but let me give you an incomplete rundown of the plot elements. You'll find various immigrant communities (Somalis, Afghans, Pakistanis, Palestinians, Syrians, Lebanese) and their differences described, Inaya's Chicago backstory, her boss Waqas Seif's backstory, corrupt police officers, a spy in the CRU, Seif's real agenda, goings-on at a food processing plant, goings-on at an aerospace plant, the plight of refugees, hate crimes, a murder investigation, a missing persons case, an evangelical church complete with hate-filled sermons and its own biker gang enforcers, Inaya's mother trying to marry her off, Inaya being big sister, and romantic sparks between Inaya and Seif. As I said, this is an incomplete list. Whew! Sometimes, there was so much going on that my head spun.
But I value Khan's storytelling ability. She's proven to me that she's one of the best at creating complex investigations to solve in worlds that I'm unfamiliar with-- and becoming familiar with those worlds and their people is every bit as important to me as the crimes she asks me to solve.
Blackwater Falls by Ausma Zehanat Khan
eISBN: 9781250822390
Minotaur Books © 2022
eBook, 384 pages
Police Procedural, #1 Inaya Rahman mystery
Rating: B
Source: Net Galley
