The Unquiet Dead

Starred review from November 3, 2014
In Khan’s beautiful and powerful first novel, Esa Khattak, a second-generation Canadian Muslim and the head of Toronto’s Community Policing Section, and his sergeant, Rachel Getty, investigate the death of Christopher Drayton, who fell from a cliff overlooking Lake Ontario “with no evidence of outside interference.” When their inquiries reveal that Drayton was, in fact, the alias for a Serb who oversaw the slaughter of thousands of Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica, Khattak and Getty have to wonder whether foul play was involved. Through her characters’ interactions and passages taken from testimony at war crimes trials, Khan reveals the depths of horror and venality that people are capable of while also portraying the healing of long-sundered relationships. Who killed Drayton remains a mystery until the final pages, but Khan’s story, as well as her author and source notes, leave no doubt of the monstrous crimes committed against Muslims in Bosnia while U.N. forces turned away. Agent: Danielle Burby, Hannigan Salky Getzler.

This thought-provoking literary mystery will shock listeners into realizing how little we know about the world we live in. At times, it's difficult to absorb that this story is based on real events that happened in the 1990s. Peter Ganim narrates clearly and dispassionately but with empathy. His pacing and tone are consistently suited to the descriptions of the suffering and travails of ordinary people during the ethnic cleansing and cultural destruction of the Bosnian war. Each chapter begins with a quotation from witness testimony; endnotes present numerous references to victim statements from the International Criminal Tribunal. Ganim's accents seem appropriate to the victims represented and add a grittiness that tears at listeners' hearts. Khan's novel is compelling and haunting, as is Ganim's presentation. S.C.A. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

Starred review from April 1, 2015

Inspector Esa Khattak investigates whether a man's deadly fall from the Toronto bluffs was accident, suicide, or murder. His seemingly straightforward inquest unearths atrocities perpetrated during Yugoslavia's collapse in the early 1990s and unmasks a war criminal complicit in Bosnian Muslim genocide. Although this is Khan's debut novel, Khattak and his partner, Det. Rachel Getty, emerge full blown, their backgrounds and professional relationship seamlessly woven into the narrative. This device endows an inaugural episode with the comfort and gratification of a prodigious series. Actor Peter Ganim's resonant delivery morphs as needed into female or youthful characters without distracting the listener. Framed by actual events, the case exposes Khattak and Getty to barbarities vividly depicted by Khan, a former editor in chief at Muslim Girl magazine, who holds a PhD in international human rights law. VERDICT Fans of police procedurals and cerebral detecting will be thrilled to meet Khattak and Getty. ["Readers of international mysteries will be most drawn to the story, but anyone looking for an intensely memorable mystery should put this one at the top of their list," read the starred review of the Minotaur hc, LJ 12/14.]--Judith Robinson, Univ. at Buffalo

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