Kingdom of Strangers by Zoe Ferraris

Saudi Arabia likes to say its high standard of morality is why serial killers just aren’t a real concern. When it’s happened, it’s been a foreigner.

In the desert outside of Jeddah, a grave is found. As the police dig, they find another grave, then another, and another. In total, 19 bodies are recovered. All have had their hands removed, but 3 hands still remain.

Homicide inspector Ibrahim Zahrani is assigned the case, but there are some in the department who think the case is too much for him. All possible resources are called in. First task is to ID the remains. Seeing as how all the victims are female, and from SE Asia, the post mortems go slowly – decency edicts restrict the contact with the victims by the mostly male medical examiners office. Their lack of experience in serial killers leads to an FBI expert to be called for advice. Of course, the expert is female and largely ignored by the detective staff.

Katya Hijazi is a CSI tech for the police with ambitions of joining the police force someday and become a detective, a tough task considering the male-dominated Saudi workforce. She has a lot of work to do in a lab ill equipped to handle this size of a case. She looks in on the FBI’s first presentation, then talks with her later. Katya notices a pattern in the graves, then a pattern in how the bodies are placed.

Another woman has been abducted, this time a well off Saudi national. And her amputated hand turns up on the street. The male cops think the cases are unconnected. Katya thinks the killer has started anew with a new pattern, maybe unhappy that the gravesite had been discovered – which sends Katya back to the site for clues to whether the killer has been looking in on the cop’s excavation of the graves.

Oh, yes. Inspector Ibrahim, married to a shrill, with a bunch of kids and grandkids, and a son who wants a marriage annulled, has a girlfriend – a former undercover operative for the police, and she’s a Filipino and she’s disappeared. And Ibrahim can’t call it in because if he does, his adulterous affair will become public and in Saudi Arabia, this can sometimes mean the death penalty. So he enlists Katya to help do some quiet investigations.

Katya has good instincts and on both cases, no matter what the turn of events (of which there are a bunch), her gut sends her in a different (and better) direction than the detective squad.

Saw this book on the new release shelf at Barnes and Noble and jotted it down thinking maybe I’ll read it if the library has it. Good decision. The book is a solid winner on multiple fronts.

First, as a police procedural, this is a very tightly presented story with significant details and twists to keep any lover of such stories glued to each page. Second, taking place in Saudi Arabia, Ferraris give us a look behind the curtain, or burqa if you will, at a society that most Americans have few facts about. Prepare for an education about the expectations and requirements around work, relationships, riding a taxi, shopping, eating at a restaurant, and life and society in general. Finally, and importantly, Ferraris is one helluva writer. In the right circumstances, this is a one sitting book.

I've learned that Ferraris has a MFA from Columbia and for a while, lived in Saudi Arabia with her (then) husband so she has lived of what she speaks. And happily, I found that this is the 3^rd in a series of books featuring Katya Hijazi. The library has the other two. I’ll be checking out the first, Finding Nouf, tomorrow.

East Coast Don