Thank you to Netgalley and Minotaur Books for giving me an arc to review! Also big thanks to @kahaneewitches for posting about this book on their Instagram stories. I was immediately hooked when I saw the main character is a Muslim detective and just knew I needed to read it!

I don’t read adult mystery/thriller all that much. A lot of the mystery books I’ve read are historical fiction/mystery or more ya contemporary mystery/thriller, so I was excited to see what I would think.

To start off with, the plot of this book and the actual mystery was very complex with lots of twists and turns I was not expecting. And I loved every second of it! It kept me on the edge of my seat and I loved getting to know the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of Blackwater Falls. In a way, you kind of get to be Inaya as the reader. Inaya is pretty new to Blackwater Falls, so as the reader, you both go on this journey of learning the secrets the town and its people are hiding. The book was fast-paced and I couldn’t put it down. And instead of focusing on just one mystery—of Razan’s murder—we also get swept up in the disappearance of two Black Muslim girls, plus the ongoing investigation happening with Sheriff Grant. It’s all interconnected but also a confusing mess, but in a good way! I miss that when it comes to books. The delicious complexity of a plot really made me realize I need to read more adult fiction.

Inaya is part Pakistani and part Afghani. Her relationship with her family was so relatable it kind of hurt lol. Her younger sisters are “fashionable” and into boys, whereas Inaya is focused on her work and the murder of Razan. We have a whole scene in chapter ten of the book where Inaya’s mom tries to convince her to see this rishta and goes on a whole spiel about how important it is to get married, and how Inaya’s younger sisters can’t get married until she does, and she’s getting older now, etc etc. Like I said, painfully relatable. I do wish we got to see more moments of Inaya with her family. Her baba is honestly the best, sweetest, kindest man alive. To see someone in her family be so supportive of her dreams and her career made me emotional. And it was a nice balance when it came to her mom’s persistence.

One thing I think this book does well is address the complexities when it comes to being a visible minority while working in a system that is known for its systemic racism and violence. I hate the police. With a passion. And this book will make you hate them even more. But what’s difficult is seeing how Inaya is hated by members of her community for being on the “wrong side” and working within this system to try and bring people justice. It’s complicated and honestly I don’t know how I feel about it either. In one way, it makes sense that since we can’t immediately defund the police, having people who represent the community working within the system could be a way to make change. But at the same time, we’ve seen visible minorities working among the police and seen how they suppress their background and differences to fit in and be like everyone else. Seif, Inaya’s boss, is one such example since he’s white passing and also has twisted his name and past to suit his purposes. So all in all, it’s hard to say who’s right and who’s wrong and if the Community Response Unit is the way to go with dealing with police brutality and misconduct. I don’t think I’m educated enough on this topic to have a proper opinion, but I appreciate that this was addressed rather than ignoring it entirely.

Another interesting aspect of this book is the difference in how the disappearance of two Black Muslim girls is treated vs. Razan’s more public murder (as a white-skinned Syrian). Another thing I was glad was addressed and Areesha is definitely going to be a character many people will fall in love with. (I’m also obsessed with her fashion sense).

I do want to address a couple things though. I think this book needs trigger warnings, and I really hope the publisher sees this and can add this before the book is published. This book is disturbing and hard to read at times. We get Razan’s refugee backstory, the systemic racism and discrimination Muslim and refugee members of the Blackwater community are going through, plus there are two scenes where characters get their hijabs ripped off while being filmed and terrorized by white men. 

The chapters in particular are: 18 and 53

While I’ve never personally experienced the horror that these two scenes describe, I think it’s a common fear for a lot of hijab-wearing Muslims. That and it being Muharram and my mind being back in Karbala when the women in the Prophet’s family were stripped of their hijabs, physically abused, and marched through the streets of Damascus…I was not mentally ready to be reading something like this. It was really difficult and triggering and I had to take a break from reading before continuing on. The only other scene that triggered me was something that was more personal and specific to my experiences, so I won’t mention anything except if you’ve had bad experiences when it comes to rishtas and matchmaking, that’s something you should have a heads up on.

While I loved so much of this book, the one thing that just didn’t work for me was the romance. I was not a big fan. Inaya is religious. She doesn’t hide her faith, even though she doesn’t wear hijab anymore. And Seif…well he’s the complete opposite. I think the first proper pov we get for him he’s completely smitten and it feels out of nowhere, especially considering he knows Inaya is Muslim and practicing, whereas he’s not just the complete opposite, but he’s also pretending to be white in front of everyone else. It just didn’t work for me and felt awkward and almost one-sided. While Inaya is interested in Seif and her sisters keep hinting at the possible romance there, Inaya didn’t seem to feel the same way. And Seif’s commentary about Inaya and her beautiful hair and dark eyes…and we even get a moment when he’s “filled with lust” just made me uncomfortable. One thing I did like was how Inaya stays firm in her beliefs, and while it seems like Seif could be on the bridge of change for future books, I don’t know if how I feel about the two of them together changes much. It might be more me than anything. But I would have loved this book more without the romance since there’s already so much going on plot wise. 

The end of this book did surprise me a little. I can never really guess mysteries lol so I’m always surprised. I’m not sure how I feel about all of it though, but it did tie things up well. The very last chapter was absolutely heartbreaking though and I almost cried.

Another difficult book to rate, but I think I’m going to give it 3.75/5 stars. I am interested to see what happens next since there are still some loose ends, and I did love Cat and Areesha and Inaya’s family a lot. Though I’m not sure if I’ll be rushing to pick up the next book.