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Summary
Summary
A secret grave is unearthed in the desert revealing the bodies of 19 women and the shocking truth that a serial killer has been operating undetected in Jeddah for more than a decade.
However, lead inspector Ibrahim Zahrani is distracted by a mystery closer to home. His mistress has suddenly disappeared, but he cannot report her missing since adultery is punishable by death. With nowhere to turn, Ibrahim brings the case to Katya, one of the few women in the police department. Drawn into both investigations, she must be increasingly careful to hide a secret of her own.
Portraying the lives of women in one of the most closed cultures in the world, award-winning author Zov´ Ferraris weaves a tale of psychological suspense around an elusive serial killer and the sinister forces trafficking in human lives in Saudi Arabia.
Author Notes
Zoë Ferraris moved to Saudi Arabia in the aftermath of the first Gulf War to live with her then husband and his extended family of Saudi-Palestinian Bedouins. She has an MFA from Columbia University and is the author of two previous novels, Finding Nouf and City of Veils . She lives in San Francisco.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
The discovery of 19 female bodies with their hands cut off in the desert outside Jeddah propels Ferraris's beautifully crafted third mystery featuring Saudi forensic technician Katya Hijazi (after 2010's City of Veils). Lt. Col. Insp. Ibrahim Zahrani, who takes charge of the serial killer case, turns to Katya for help with a personal matter. Ibrahim's illegal Filipino mistress, Sabria, has disappeared, and he can neither investigate freely nor make his queries official for fear of harsh public punishment. Eager to move beyond her limited role in the female-only police lab, Katya agrees to visit the clothing boutique where Sabria worked in a women's shopping mall. Katya also faces her own personal crisis-whether to marry the traditional Nayir, who's uneasy with her unconventional behavior. By the end, the two cases change both Ibrahim's and Katya's lives dramatically. With intelligence, patience, and meticulous detail, Ferraris evokes a complex culture profoundly ambivalent about female power. Agent: Julie Barer, Barer Literary. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
In the third of a series, a Saudi Arabian detective hunts a serial killer as his career teeters on the brink. In the desert outside Jeddah, a Bedouin herder has discovered a shallow grave in the sand. Called to investigate, Ibrahim, a senior inspector for the Jeddah police, makes a grim discovery: 19 bodies are buried at the site, all women of Asian origin. All have had hands amputated, and three hands are buried at the grisly scene. Ibrahim and his team at first assume that the victims were all immigrants, brought into the country to work as domestics and in other menial jobs. Since many such employees are actually enslaved, their employers seldom report them missing when they run away. Without passports or resources, such women are easy marks for a killer who preys on those no one is looking for. Ibrahim is aided in his investigation by Katya, who is eager to escape her cloistered job as a lab tech and work in the field, a challenge in a gender-segregated police department. Virtue laws, requiring women to be shrouded in public, also forbid them to drive--they must be chauffeured by males, preferably relatives. When a Saudi housewife takes a taxi and disappears, Ibrahim immediately suspects that she is the first Saudi victim of the so-called Angel killer, particularly when her severed hand is left for police to find. The killer defies even the profiling expertise of American FBI consultant Charlie (a woman, much to the consternation of Ibrahim's colleagues). Ibrahim's chaotic home, shared by three generations and ruled by his tyrannical wife, Jamila, is no refuge. And his mistress, former undercover agent Sabria, is missing. Ibrahim faces a terrible dilemma--if word of his affair leaks out, he could be condemned to death for adultery. However Sabria's disappearance could also be the Angel's work. Only a woman--Katya--can help. Accomplished prose, an intricate mystery and insider Saudi scoop make for an unusual and winning combination.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Ferraris (City of Veils, 2010) offers another fascinating mystery that provides insight into the lives of women in Saudi Arabia and exposes the plight of migrant workers there. When a mass grave containing the remains of 19 women is discovered in the desert outside Jeddah, the police realize that a serial killer has been at work in the area for more than 10 years. Ibrahim Zahrani, the lead detective on the case, may be in over his head, but he also has a big problem distracting him. His mistress has suddenly disappeared, and he cannot report it because adultery is a capital crime in Saudi Arabia. In desperation, he asks Katya, one of the few women working in the police department, to investigate off the books. Katya has her own secret that cannot be exposed. The combination of an exotic locale with a closed culture and first-rate psychological suspense makes this a compelling page-turner. Recommend Ferraris to readers who enjoyed Rajaa Alsanea's literary novel Girls of Riyadh (2007).--Bibel, Barbara Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
The discovery of 19 women's bodies in the desert near Jeddah, all carefully arranged and missing hands, points to an organized serial killer long operating in Saudi Arabia. But the investigation is hampered both by strict Saudi gender segregation, under which a male coroner may not autopsy female bodies, and by the preoccupation of lead investigator Ibrahim Zahrani, whose beloved mistress has just gone missing. Officials are further discombobulated when Dr. Charlie Becker, the U.S. serial killer expert sent to help, turns out to be a woman. Forensic scientist Katya Hijaz sidesteps regulations to work on the case, even as she assists Zahrani surreptitiously with his personal quest, and her consultations with Becker and insights from her fiance, Nayir Sharqi, turn out to pay dividends. VERDICT In her third novel featuring Hijaz and Sharqi (after Finding Nouf; City of Veils), Ferraris advances their personal relationship, as each expresses qualms about their pending wedding, in another mystery that lays bare the closed Saudi society in which the author herself once lived. Compelling cross-cultural suspense. [See Prepub Alert, 12/12/11.]-Michele Leber, Arlington, VA (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
