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By Ausma Zehanat Khan
ISBN: 9781250055118
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: 1/13/2015
Format: Other
Series: Rachel Getty and Esa Khattak #1

My Rating: 5 Stars

A special thank you to Minotaur Books, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

THE UNQUIET DEAD, Ausma Zehanat Khan’s stunning debut, and the first in the Rachel Getty and Esa Khattak series delivers a powerful and complex mystery and suspense, keeping you holding your breath, for the next installment.

Detective Rachel Getty (she has some secrets of her own) and her boss Esa Khattak (a second-generation Canadian Muslim with some secrets) who heads the new Community Policing Section, created to deal with delicate cases involving minorities are investigating a crime.

Christopher Drayton’s death- who fell from a cliff (a sensitive case). However, not everything is as it appears and Khattak is not being forthcoming with information and Drayton may have been a war criminal with ties to the Srebrenica massacre of 1995. Who is out to get him, was foul play involved, or was this an accident?

An emotional, heartbreaking and haunting mystery of horrific crimes committed against Muslims in Bosnia. Khan delivers an engrossing story of tragedy and devastation which will grip you to the end. Lovers of international crime fiction will devour THE UNQUIET DEAD, written with beautiful lyrical prose; one of loss and redemption.

The novel is based upon events that occurred during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia, formerly a republic of the nation of Yugoslavia. Incredible and extensive research -- drive of those for ethnic and religious uniformity; “Courage, perseverance, and dignity in the face of appalling carnage remind us why Bosnia was a place worth saving.”

The author’s background, a former law professor with a specialty in Balkan war crimes offers her incredible insights making for a stellar and impressive debut.

Her credentials and associations -- a former adjunct professor at American and Canadian universities, she holds a Ph.D. in International Human Rights Law, with the 1995 Srebrenica massacre as the main subject of her dissertation. She also worked briefly with the Bosnian Canadian Relief Association during the war and met members of Bosnian communities, witnesses, activists, and scholars. Well done