I always enjoy reading a book by Zoe Ferraris. Kingdom of Strangers is her best yet. I'm fascinated with the Saudi culture and I think Ms. Ferraris does a great job of educating us. I do suggest that you read these books in order start with Finding Nouf, City of Veils and then Kingdom of Strangers.

Love this series. Each is better then the last. Love the setting - modern day Saudi Arabia - where women are treated terribly and must fight for every little tiny bit of freedom they have. These are detective novels that delve deep into Saudi society and the many issues women in that society face. Really great reads.

superb.

The mystery was a 4.5, but the romance was a 3 so I gave it a 4. I absorb all the details of living as a career-oriented female in Saudi Arabia. I liked the plot, including the romance. Unfortunately, the author teases the reader with tension between the engaged couple, but never lets us see them finally talk (they spend ample time together in the car to make this plausible). Hope a fourth installment comes out eventually....

I have only read her first book, Finding Nouf, and then this one. The characters seem very different than in the first book, but out did focus on different characters. I had the impression that Katya and Nayir were falling in love in the first book, but she seems very conflicted and reluctant for a marriage that wasn't arranged. The parts where they are discussing and trying to reconcile progressive and conservative views doesn't seem very well developed, but would have been good if it were. Rather than Nayir, this book focused on coworker Ibrahim's life and troubles. I liked the book a lot but still wonder of some of the things said about the veil, marriage, working, etc are the American author's opinion or views she encountered (and were they shared by a minority or majority of women) while living in KSA. There was a lot of cultural context, which is a big reason I choose it, and more about the police force and how protecting virtue hinders investigations- though Katya still does some solo sleuthing in this one, too

I flew through it, so overall I definitely liked it.

Starting with her book "finding Nouf", Zoe Ferraris has caught my imagination and my regard. She is a wonderful writer, and each book carries a good mystery, insight into the men and women who are trying to survive and thrive in Saudi Arabia's strange and convoluted culture. This is the third in the series - it strengthened my resolve never to set foot in Saudi Arabia, while strengthening my regard for those who have the courage to live there.

I always enjoy reading a book by Zoe Ferraris. Kingdom of Strangers is her best yet. I'm fascinated with the Saudi culture and I think Ms. Ferraris does a great job of educating us. I do suggest that you read these books in order start with Finding Nouf, City of Veils and then Kingdom of Strangers.

Good summer reading for sure. Great sense of place, interesting characters.

With each book in this series, I felt Ferraris grew as a writer and Katya grew as a character. This book was a wonderful close to the trilogy, and I look forward to whatever Ferraris has coming up next.

There is a change in style and purpose in this third iteration of Zoë Ferraris's take on criminal investigation in the shifting cultural sands of Saudi Arabia. Kingdom of Strangers is the most straightforward crime novel of the three and regrettably, the least stirring.

Although this thriller can be read independently of Ferraris's << Nayir al-Sharqi #1 and #2, aka Finding Nouf and City of Veils >>, a familiar cast of characters creates the scenes. Here again is forensic technician Katya Hijazi, an ambitious young woman stifled by her culture. She is oppressed at work by male colleagues who can barely tolerate the shadowy presence of women in distant offices, much less consider them for advancement. She is engaged to the loving but pious desert guide Nayir al-Sharqi, who plays a secondary role in this novel. Katya is conflicted about her upcoming nuptials, as she fears marriage to a devout Muslim will mean the end to a career she loves. Her own connection to Islam is forced and arbitrary as she struggles against Saudi subjugation of women. We also catch glimpses of Osama Zahrani, but it is his brother and fellow police investigator, Ibrahim, who takes the helm in Kingdom of Strangers.

The brutal and symbolic handiwork of a serial killer is uncovered in the desert outside of Jeddah. The bodies of nineteen women, whose corpses span a decade, shake a police force which assumes serial killers are a phenomenon of the corrupt West.

As the investigation unfolds, Detective Ibrahim Zahrani becomes mired in a personal dilemma. His mistress, Sabria, has vanished. He must keep his search a secret as the crime of adultery is punishable by death. He trusts one colleague only - Katya Hijazi. Katya risks her career and impending marriage by helping this superior who holds her in high professional regard.

Ferraris has become a true master of the literary thriller; she devotes more energy to the details of the crimes and to the criminal investigation than in her two previous novels.The scenes set in Jeddah's Homicide unit and in the field are fascinating. We witness the machinations of the ambitious, the corrupt, the earnest and the fanatical, within the context an authoritarian culture dominated by religious strictures. The crimes and the investigation run with all the real-time urgency of the best television crime shows.

It is no surprise that the theme of the oppression of women in Saudi culture again dominates Ferraris's thriller. In Kingdom of Strangers the net of control is tossed wider as we learn of the brutal treatment of migrant workers - foreigners brought in from Africa, Southeast Asia and India as menial laborers. Many of these workers are in fact victims of human trafficking. The most vulnerable - the women - become slaves in the households of Saudi's wealthiest. Those who escape have no means, finanacial or diplomatic, to leave the country, so they form cities of slums underneath freeway underpasses, becoming Jeddah's "Kingdom of Strangers."

But in all honesty, this theme is getting to be a drag for this reader. Because the circumstances of their daily lives have not changed, there is little development in the characters of Katya and Nayir. The claustrophobic mores of Saudi Arabia are so intractable that they dominate every scene. The plot is weighed down by the impossibility of the stifling culture and rather than shocking, the oppression becomes monotonous.

I rate this highly because it is an excellent read, but I hope the Ferraris's literary world takes us out of Saudi Arabia. I remarked in my review of City of Veils that I hoped the author wouldn't paint herself into a corner by pursuing the same themes and settings in each story. As sublime a writer as she is, the paintbrush is dripping.