Thanks to No Exit Press for an advanced reading copy of No Place of Refuge in exchange for an honest review. Thanks also to Anne Cater for organizing this blog tour.
No Place of Refuge by Ausma Zehanat Khan
Genre: mystery
Publisher: No Exit Press
Publication date: August 22, 2019
Blurb (from No Exit Press site)
“Amid a global crisis, one woman searches for justice…
The Syrian refugee crisis just became personal for Inspector Esa Khattak and Sergeant Rachel Getty.
NGO worker Audrey Clare, sister of Khattak’s childhood friend, is missing.
In her wake, a French Interpol Agent and a young Syrian man are found dead at the Greek refugee camp where she worked.
Khattak and Getty travel to Greece to trace Audrey’s last movements in a desperate attempt to find her. In doing so, they learn that her work in Greece had strayed well beyond the remit of her NGO…
Had Audrey been on the edge of exposing a dangerous secret at the heart of the refugee crisis – one that ultimately put a target on her own back?
No Place of Refuge is a highly topical, moving mystery in which Khan sensitively exposes the very worst and best of humanity. Fans of the series will love this latest installment.”
My thoughts on No Place of Refuge
I’d heard great things about the Esa Khattak and Rachel Getty series, but I hadn’t read any of the books when I joined this blog tour. Now I wonder what took me so long.
This book had everything I love in a book.
An intriguing and fast-paced mystery, high stakes, deep characters, beautiful prose, and a heart: it had all this and more.
Not just another mystery
You can’t casually read this book and check it off the to-be-read list. It demands more from you.
It’s a book to be read and remembered. A book that kicks the gut and makes the heart weep. A book that captures complicated international politics and makes it intensely, relentlessly personal. A book about humanity’s desire for blood and humanity’s capacity to keep hope in the face of such darkness. You can’t walk away unchanged.
Complex relationships
Esa and Rachel have a complex relationship.
Many things complicate the relationships in this book: opposing or unknown motives, poor timing, distrust, or misunderstanding. But the Esa-Rachel partnership is unique. It’s not sexual or romantic. They’re more than colleagues and friends, but no one–including them–can define what binds them together. They would die for each other but they’d never sleep together.
Both have survived horrible things. Esa’s wife died violently and he’s estranged from his beloved sister. Rachel’s father was abusive, her mother openly preferred her son over Rachel, and her brother disappeared for years. Their lives have been endangered in previous cases. Yet none of this adequately prepared them for what they find in their search.
Ali, a young Syrian boy, has served as Audrey’s helper. We are first introduced to the camps through his viewpoint. He’s searching for his fiancee, whom he became separated from during their perilous journey across the Aegean Sea, while caring for her little sister. He also knows more than he’s telling Khattak and Getty. But what secret is he hiding?
Dark places
Their search leads them to many dark places. A camp where refugees huddle in inadequate shelter from the cold. The beach where volunteers search for overturned boats and drowned bodies, and where survivors discard their life jackets. A warehouse with horrific evidence.
Esa, a devout Muslim, grapples with the question all people of faith do: why did the god he worships allow these horrors? Even though I don’t share his spiritual beliefs, his struggle moved me. There are no easy answers.
Background and context
Khan weaves the background facts and story together. The collapse of Syria, the Calais Jungle and Lesvos camps and others, the way Europe–and the world–unwelcomes the refugees: this context is necessary if we’re to understand the horror of the crisis and war forming the backbone of this story.
Yet she creates a compelling story, too. She never makes the facts to dominate the story, telling us what to think. Instead, she allows the character’s emotions and actions to pull aside the darkness of our ignorance and move us.
A warning
There are descriptions of atrocities. Though Khan never over-describes the tortures that Syrian dissidents endure, she never glosses over them, either. They are appalling. Those who have suffered abuse might be triggered.
But others should read this and have their eyes opened to the truth behind the Syrian refuge crisis.
Will it disturb you? Yes. It should.
But if we put aside a book because of momentary discomfort, we’ve turned our back on other people in their time of need. This is too important to ignore. Other people have worth. After reading Khan’s book, no one can deny this truth.
Powerful. Moving. Important. A must-read book.
To order, see No Exit Press’s website for links.
Author Bio:
“Ausma Zehanat Khan holds a Ph.D. in International Human Rights Law with a specialisation in military intervention and war crimes in the Balkans. She has practised immigration law and taught human rights law at Northwestern University and York University. Formerly, she served as Editor in Chief of Muslim Girl magazine, the first magazine to reflect the lives of young Muslim women. Her debut novel, The Unquiet Dead, won the Barry Award, the Arthur Ellis Award and the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award for Best First Novel. She is a longtime community activist and writer. Born in Britain, Ausma lived in Canada for many years before recently becoming an American citizen. She lives in Colorado with her husband.”
Thanks so much for the blog tour support x