A Shipwreck in Fiji by Nilima Rao

 

First Lines: The Fiji Times, Saturday, May 1, 1915. Patriotic Cricket Old v Young Players. A cricket match on quite a novel scale will be held tomorrow afternoon-- weather conditions permitting-- at Albert Park...

Fiji, 1915. When rumors spread about Germans being sighted, Sergeant Akal Singh is sent to the neighboring island of Ovalau to investigate. His commanding officer believes he's sending the sergeant off on a wild goose chase-- why on earth would World War I come to such a remote place in the Pacific? To add insult to injury, Singh is also tasked with chaperoning two European ladies on a sightseeing tour. When Singh arrives on Ovalau, he realizes that he will also have to mentor the island's only police officer, an eighteen-year-old constable with a penchant for hysterics.

Accompanying Singh is his friend and fellow officer, Taviti, who is visiting his uncle, the local chief. The two men quickly find themselves involved in the investigation surrounding the death of an unpopular local and the imprisonment of a group of Norwegian sailors who have run afoul of Taviti's uncle. If that weren't enough, Singh discovers that Katherine, the young European lady journalist, has an agenda of her own. Singh is going to have his hands full trying to keep everyone out of trouble.

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A Shipwreck in Fiji is the second entry in Nilima Rao's historical mystery series featuring Sergeant Akal Singh (following A Disappearance in Fiji). I am enjoying learning about the culture and history of this area at the turn of the twentieth century. 

Most readers would assume that the islands of Fiji were much too remote to be affected by World War I, but that's not true. There was a definite shortage of men on the islands, since most of them were off fighting in Europe. That's why Sergeant Akal Singh finds himself mentoring a young and extremely nervous constable when he and Taviti arrive on Ovalau.

Taviti was a welcome addition to this book, as he introduced both Singh and readers to tribal traditions, and the breaking of some of them had serious repercussions. Another aspect of Fijian life at the time was the practice of bringing indentured Indians to the islands to work for a period of five years. (Don't miss the Author's Note about this.)

The mysteries concerning the death of the local, the Norwegian sailors, and the European women's real reasons for being on the island were intriguing and certainly kept my interest; however, if one thing made me roll my eyes, it was Akal Singh's propensity to be enthralled by every pretty face he comes in contact with. This is what got him sent to Fiji in disgrace, and-- if he doesn't mend his ways soon-- it's going to get him in even hotter water in Fiji. We'll have to see what happens in the next book.

A Shipwreck in Fiji by Nilima Rao

eISBN: 9781641295482

Soho Press © 2025

eBook, 272 pages

Historical Mystery, #2 Sergeant Akal Singh mystery

Rating: B+

Source: Net Galley

A Disappearance in Fiji by Nilima Rao

 

First Lines: The Fiji Times, Monday, October 5, 1914. Chop Chop ...No, no, Mr. Editor. Mr. Crompton, speaking at he "Night Prowlers" meeting didn't say we want "bodies", we've got quite enough "busy" ones in Fiji, he said "bobbies", good old common or garden peelers, Rogers, Cops or John Hops! 

 

Sergeant Akal Singh has a promising career in Hong Kong until a humiliating professional mistake sends him to Fiji in disgrace. He spends his days plodding through his work, cursing "this godforsaken island" and the humidity that always makes his turban limp, and longing for a return to Hong Kong. When an indentured Indian woman goes missing, nothing is done until a local clergyman goes to the newspaper. To quiet the man (and the headlines), Inspector-General Thurstrom reluctantly assigns Akal the case.

Akal looks at this as a way to redeem himself and earn a return to Hong Kong and immediately goes to the sugarcane plantation where the woman worked. It doesn't take him long to realize that there's much more going on here than a mere missing persons case.

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Nilima Rao's debut mystery A Disappearance in Fiji is as much a coming-of-age story as it is a mystery. Twenty-five-year-old Sergeant Akal Singh is very much a young man of his time. He's intelligent and hard-working, but incredibly naive in affairs of the heart, and he tends to view everyone he meets through his blinders of caste and personhood. His relationship with Inspector-General Thurstrom is a thorny one. Thurstrom lost his favorite police officer when the man enlisted to go fight in World War I. He knows the reason why Akal was sent to Fiji, and he'd just as soon the young man vanish in a puff of smoke, never to be seen again. The only bright spot in Akal's working life is twenty-six-year-old Taviti, the local chief's nephew, who longs to do some real police work instead of being stuck at the front desk of the station.

The scales begin to be removed from Akal's eyes when he goes to the sugarcane plantation with Dr. Robert Holmes. There Akal comes face to face with the brutal realities of the indentured workers' lives and the racism of the British colonialists in Fiji as he interviews white plantation owners, the Indian indentured laborers, and native Fijians.

Even though the mystery in A Disappearance in Fiji is rather easy to solve, the book is a vivid snapshot of a landscape and a time period. With Akal, Taviti, and Holmes, Rao has created a cast that grabbed my attention and makes me want to know more about them, to follow along as they solve more mysteries. And as for those mysteries, there is an unsolved one at the end of the book, and I'm looking forward to finding out if Akal and the others can learn the identity of the Night Prowler in the next book. Bring it on!

A Disappearance in Fiji by Nilima Rao

eISBN: 9781641294300

Soho Press © 2023

eBook, 288 pages

 

Historical Mystery, #1 Ankal Singh mystery

Rating: B+

Source: Net Galley