A well done, layered novel that explores Saudi culture through an investigation of a serial killing. The narration is largely through the eyes of 2 characters, although there are moments narrated by other key characters.

The key plot of the novel is about the pursuit of a serial killer by Detective Ibrahim Zahrani and a female lab worker Katya Hijazi. The details of the killings, and the investigation are well thought out and intriguing. The additional twist of the male/female interaction and relationship rules in Saudi Arabia adds complexity to an already difficult case, which is further compounded by the nature of the victims (foreign women, most probably illegally in the country).

The author Ferraris does draws excellent secondary characters who are more than stock - the passed over detective, the chief who is aware of the politics of the station, the daughter-in-law who is unhappy. Through them, we begin to see the complexity of a society largely unknown by and misrepresented to most Americans. She does this by giving us glimpses into them as people instead of just having them perform a function in the story.

Ferraris true success comes however by the complexity of the main characters. Hijazi is a intelligent woman who wants to help people by solving crime, but faces a system that has little place for her. We watch her not only struggle at work, but in her relationship with her fiancé, largely conservative man. How that would all turn out was a mystery on a different level. Likewise, Detective Zahrani is also complicated and flawed. He is not particularly religious, and has a miserable marriage. His relationship with another woman, an illegal worker, is a key plot point and that relationship's connection to the serial killer investigation is played out over the course of the novel. Ferraris manages to deftly weave the realistic personal stories, the societal complexities and the thrill of a serial killer investigation into one well written novel.

This is the third book in this wonderful mystery series that features a woman trying to advance in the man’s world of Saudi Arabia. Katya is officially a forensics tech. She wants to be a detective but that is not allowed. There is push back now about even allowing women to work in the police department at all. Some people only want women to do things men absolutely can’t like search female suspects and handle female corpses.

Katya has set out to make herself necessary. Now a gravesite with nineteen women has been found and she wants to help with the case. When an expert on serial killers is brought in to help with the case and she turns out to be female, Katya is excited but worried about the hostility this brings up in her male coworkers.

She is also worried about her secret getting out. Only married women are allowed to work for the police. She isn’t married but has been pretending that she is. Now she is actually getting married and her father wants to invite everyone. She is also having concerns about the marriage. Nayir, her fiance who she met in the first book, is much more conservative than she is. She can tell that he is uneasy about her working with men. Will he try to control her once they marry even if he claims that he won’t now?

The author lived in Saudi Arabia and that shows in the small details of her writing. The story seems to have a strong sense of place in Jeddah. There are many issues brought up in this book.
The mistreatment of Asian women

Many Asian women are brought to Saudi Arabia to work as maids. Abuse is rampant. The women are charged fees to get jobs. They can’t always pay back the fees and end up in virtual slavery. Some are repeatedly raped. The mystery in this book focuses on the difficulty of solving crimes involving these women because so many run away from the abuse and are not reported missing.
Morality as a weapon

Enforcement of morality is a theme in several parts of this book. The investigation is dragging on because the head coroner won’t let men handle the bodies of the murdered women to preserve their modesty in death. But, there aren’t enough women to process the bodies quickly because they don’t like to hire women.

Old case files have the pictures of female victims removed because of modesty making it hard to compare them to new cases.

A missing woman can’t be reported missing because the only person who knows that she is gone is her married lover. If it is found out that they were together, she will be charged with prostitution and he will be charged with adultery.This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story