A Bali Conspiracy Most Foul (Inspector Singh Investigates #2) in Around the World in 80 Books

Aug 08, 2011 Tony rated it liked it

Shelves: novels, setting-asia, crime

While the first book in the "Inspector Singh Investigates" saw the troublesome Singaporean copper sent off to Kuala Lumpur to assist in a high-society murder, this book uses a much grimmer incident as the basis for his exile. He is sent to the Indonesian island of Bali to assist with the aftermath of a suicide bomb attack on a tourist site by an Islamic terrorist group (based on the real 2002 Bali terrorist attacks by the Jemaah Islamiyah). Singh has no expertise whatsoever in anti-terrorism ope While the first book in the "Inspector Singh Investigates" saw the troublesome Singaporean copper sent off to Kuala Lumpur to assist in a high-society murder, this book uses a much grimmer incident as the basis for his exile. He is sent to the Indonesian island of Bali to assist with the aftermath of a suicide bomb attack on a tourist site by an Islamic terrorist group (based on the real 2002 Bali terrorist attacks by the Jemaah Islamiyah). Singh has no expertise whatsoever in anti-terrorism operations, but when a coroner turns up a suspicious gunshot hole in the skull of one of the victims, Singh is tasked with finding out who the person was, whether they were murdered before the bombing, and if so, who did it.

As in the previous book, he is partnered with another copper in order to create a kind of "Odd Couple" scenario -- in this case, it's a tall, rangy Australian woman police officer who is in trouble for speaking too freely to the press. As they try to find some kind of lead beyond the skull shard, the story also flits back and forth between two other groups of characters. One is a parcel of unpleasant, bickering, dissolute expatriate British and Australians, the other a small household of Muslims who've come to Bali from the island of Sulawesi. Readers don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out that the Muslims are another terrorist cell, and that they are somehow linked to the group of expatriates. However, it's quite decent page-turning fun to see just how Singh manages to slowly connect the dots. As in the first book, much of enjoyment comes from watching the dumpy Singh be constantly underestimated, only to have him slowly turn the screws on various witnesses and suspects.

It would have been easy for the story to veer from murder mystery into a more conventional post-9/11 thriller, and the author does a great job of ratcheting up the tension without it becoming a trashy airport thriller. While the beliefs and motivations of many of the characters may be unpleasant, they are fairly depicted and no one comes across as a bogeyman monster (except maybe one of the ex-pat women). I especially liked the ending, which managed to be satisfying, shocking, realistic, and bitter all at once. That gives me high hopes for the next books in the series (The Singapore School of Villainy and A Deadly Cambodian Crime Spree). ...more

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