The Evolution of Detective Stories

I’m a big fan of Zehanat Khan’s Rachel Getty and Esa Khattak detective series so I did actually drop everything to read this one when I got my hands on a galley. While we move from Canada to Colorado for this series, we once again get another fantastic pairing between two detectives. One of my favorite things about Zehanat Khan’s writing is how different the characters are, even when containing many similarities. Immigrants and marginalized people so easily and constantly get painted and viewed as a monolith and it’s comforting to not only avoid that in Zehanat Khan’s novels but also find nuance.

The mystery is in a town in Colorado where a teen from a Syrian Muslim refugee family is found murdered and deliberately positioned in the local mosque. Detective Inaya Rahman—who comes with a past she’s trying to shake and is sent to places with high complaints against officers—is investigating along with Lieutenant Waqas Seif. Rahman is American, half Afghan and half Pakistani with a loving family who may drive her up a wall sometimes and are split on supporting her career but are close and always there for her. Seif has been raising and supporting his two younger brothers and unlike Rahman keeps his culture/ethnicity to himself. Enter a motorcycle gang, the discovery of missing girls the police have done nothing to look for, and a community that isn’t all welcoming and it’s a race against time to figure out who is responsible.

If you’re a fan of police procedurals don’t miss this new series and getting to know Detective Inaya Rahman.

(TW scenes of assault to rip off a hijab/ racism, xenophobia, islamophobia/ police brutality stories / brief mention past domestic abuse, not graphic/ brief recount of groping, not graphic, mentions stalking/ scene in a meat packing plant)

Sadie fans will be thrilled by Summers’ upcoming novel and its ripped-from-the-headlines story. Just note that while Sadie kept the graphic things off the page, I’m the Girl does not.

Sixteen-year-old Georgia Avis has only one goal: becoming an Aspera girl. Her mother worked at the members-only resort and after once making a comment that Georgia couldn’t, it’s all she’s ever wanted to do. With her mother dead and her older brother in charge of her, her life really takes an even darker turn when she discovers the body of a younger teen girl right before being hit by a car. Now she’s determined to solve the murder along with continuing to become an Aspera girl, which she gets one step closer when she gets hired by the owner for a different job. But obsessions can so easily impair us from seeing reality, leaving us vulnerable to danger… Much of this book is just an ominous feeling layered on top of Georgia’s obsession–it’s hard to watch and harder to put down.

(TW rape and murder of young teen case, not graphic/ past parent cancer death, not graphic/ teen sexual assault by adult on page/ brief suicide mention, detail/ predators)

On the latest All The Books! Liberty and Danika chat new releases including Counterfeit by Kirstin Chen.

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