Review of BLACKWATER FALLS by Ausma Zehanat Khan (New Release)

 3 Stars

I’ve read and enjoyed all the books in Ausma Zehanat Khan’s Rachel Getty/Esa Khattak series so I looked forward to this first in a new series.  Unfortunately, I was disappointed.

A Syrian teenager, Razan Elkader, is found murdered in Blackwater Falls, a suburb of Denver.  Lieutenant Waqas Seif brings his team of the Community Response Unit to investigate.  That team includes Detective Inaya Rahman.  They discover that two Somali girls have gone missing though the local sheriff has been slow to act.  Is there a connection among the girls?  Is Razan’s murder a hate crime or is it connected to her and her father’s activism? 

A lack of clarity on one issue bothered me.  Complaints against the sheriff have resulted in the Community Response Unit taking over the investigation, but the sheriff continues to be involved.  The sheriff “refused to turn over paperwork, acted as if he hadn’t been removed” and leads a town hall meeting indicating “he didn’t intend to be sidelined.” 

How is the CRU’s investigation different from one that would be conducted by regular police detectives?  Other than the fact that they seem to act/react very slowly, there seems no difference.  More than once, searches are conducted in a way that would not be considered legal.  Things that should be researched immediately are not until much later.  Except for Mercedes, Razan’s friends are not interviewed until much later?  Obvious things like surveillance video are not checked? 

There are some events that require explanation.  Inaya left an untenable situation in Chicago to become a member of the Denver Police Department’s Community Response Unit.  Her family moved with her to Blackwater Falls?  Two girls can disappear but there are only rumours about them, and it takes Inaya some time to even find out their identities?  Why would a man engaged in criminal activity wear a name tag identifying him in any way?  A board member of a company would be concerned about “his bottom line”?  We are told that “the Abdi and Diriye families were meeting the detectives,” but then the husbands aren’t there?  The Abdi family consists of two sons, but the whereabouts of one son is never discussed?

The character of Inaya is developed since she will be a key player in the series.  She is stubborn, “as biddable as a musk ox,” and tenacious, but she is also reckless.  She wants members of the minority community to be handled with care and compassion, yet she often acts as a steamroller, jumping to conclusions about other people in the community.  Though she does not wear a hijab, she is described as religious.  She says things like, “’I’m accountable to my Creator’” and “She put her parents’ and sisters’ needs before her own, and it was a privilege to do so.”   Yet she is never shown in prayer until two-thirds of the way through the book?  What is emphasized is her difficult position, working within a system known for its systemic racism:  “She was a traitor twice over, too brown for the badge, too blue for her co-religionists.”

The investigations into the murder and missing persons’ cases are overshadowed by the author’s political views.  My views align with hers, but her approach is so heavy-handed that the narrative gets lost.  The number of stereotypes bothered me:  corrupt and prejudiced law enforcement, xenophobic Christian evangelists, and a MAGA-supporting, white supremacist, violent motorcycle gang.  Whites and Christians tend to be bad; brown/ black-skinned people and Muslims tend to be good.  It’s great that the perspective of minorities is provided, but I’d have liked more nuance in character portrayals. 

Why is it necessary to include a romance element?  The sexual tension between Inaya and Seif feels forced and awkward and just becomes tedious.  It’s just another element to distract from the cases, and there is so much already in the book:  characters’ backstories, police brutality and corruption, murder and missing persons’ investigations, Inaya’s mother’s attempts to find a husband for her eldest daughter, misogyny, Islamophobia, xenophobia, white supremacy, unionization attempts at a meat-packing plant, weapons manufacturing, and sexual assault.  These issues are current and important, but a focused approach on a few would be better than overwhelming the reader. 

I wanted to like this book more.  Some judicious revision would go a long way to improving its focus.   A novel from the perspective of a Muslim woman is so welcome but is it necessary to burden her story with so many of society’s ills? 

Note:  I received a digital galley from the publisher via NetGalley.