Review by Booklist Review
The first case in Quebec for National Community Policing detectives Esa Khattak and Rachel Getty's (last seen in A Dangerous Crossing, 2018) proves personally and professionally dangerous. In Saint-Isidore-du-Lac, dozens of worshippers have been murdered in the town's mosque. Young congregant Amadou Duchon is arrested as he runs from the mosque. Inside, the town's priest, Father Etienne Roy, is found holding an automatic rifle, but somehow isn't detained by the Sûreté de Québec. As activist Diana Shehadeh stirs media and protestors, Isabelle Clement arrives to represent Quebec's premier, and the town's white nationalist Wolf Brotherhood vows to protect Quebecois culture by any means necessary. Esa and Rachel attempt to awaken the lead detective, Christian Lemaire, to evidence of alternative suspects, but Esa is off his game, shaken by the enraged anti-Muslim movement infecting Quebec and unexpected emotions sparked by the involvement of Alizah Siddiqui, whom he connected with on an earlier case. Khan masterfully weaves story-driving character development and pitch-perfect investigation with timely social commentary on the impact of cultural tensions.--Christine Tran Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Issues of religion, culture, and racism take center stage in Khan's outstanding fifth novel featuring Insp. Esa Khattak, the Torontobased head of Canada's Community Policing Section (after 2018's A Dangerous Crossing). Esa and his partner, Sgt. Rachel Getty, travel to the small Quebec town of SaintIsidoreduLac, where eight people have been shot dead in a mosque in an apparent hate crime. The local police, led by racist Insp. Christian Lemaire of the Sûreté du Quebec, quickly arrest Amadou Duchon, a young Muslim man who was at the scene helping the wounded. The Quebec police also conduct a superficial interview with priest Étienne Roy, who was holding the murder weapon, before releasing him. The priest denies having fired it. In the course of their investigation, Esa and Rachel find a town divided by cultural differences, egged on by a rightwing radio host, and panicked by immigrants and the small Muslim community whose religion is compromised by Quebec's controversial Codes of Conduct, which favor Catholics. Khan perceptively explores how fear can quickly erupt into violence. Agent: Danielle Burby, Hannigan Salky Getzler. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A sadly relevant look at the consequences of racism and bigotry.Esa Khattak and his partner, Sgt. Rachel Getty, are the mainstays of Canada's Community Policing Department, which deals with hate crimes and terrorism. Their latest case takes them from their Toronto base to a small Quebecois town where someone has just massacred members of the local mosque. Both Rachel and Esa, who is a second-generation Canadian Muslim, are deeply disturbed when they receive a hostile reception from Christian Lemaire, the officer in charge. Prejudice is clearly at work when local priest Father Roy, who was found at the scene with a rifle in his hands, is escorted away, while Amadou Duchon, a young black member of the mosque, is arrested. Scores of reporters, community activists, and the premier's press liaison descend on the town with their very different agendas. The crimes seem almost to have been committed by two different people. The women were all calmly shot with a handgun in the basement; a violent rage upstairs apparently fueled the deaths and woundings of dozens of men with an assault rifle. Esa, who always gets intensely invested in his cases, becomes even more so because of the involvement of university student Alizah Siddiqui, whose sister's murder he investigated (A Dangerous Crossing, 2018). Alizah has a campus radio talk show that constantly battles another station intent on stirring up hatred in an area where Francophile sentiment already runs deep. The neo-Nazi Wolf Allegiance is run by Maxime Thibault, an arrogant preppy who has a love-hate relationship with Alizah. Rachel is both attracted to Lemaire and deeply distrustful of him and other police officers she suspects of bigotry. Khan peoples her police procedural with believably nuanced characters to highlight the consequences of hate.The tension never lets down in this horrifying look at mass murder and the often mundane factors that inspire it. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
