BOTM September 2024 - A Disappearance in Fiji

[GailW]

"...debut mystery featuring a 25-year-old Indian police sergeant investigating a missing persons case in colonial Fiji.

1914, Fiji: ...after a promising start to his police career in his native India and Hong Kong, Akal has been sent to Fiji as punishment for a humiliating professional mistake. ...When an indentured Indian woman goes missing from a sugarcane plantation and Fiji’s newspapers scream “kidnapping,” the inspector-general reluctantly assigns Akal the case, giving him strict instructions to view this investigation as nothing more than cursory. Akal, eager to achieve redemption, agrees—but soon finds himself far more invested than he could have expected.

... Early interrogations of the white plantation owners, Indian indentured laborers, and native Fijians yield only one conclusion: there is far more to this case than meets the eye. {The novel] offers an unflinching look at the evils of colonialism, even as it brims with wit, vibrant characters, and fascinating historical detail."

About the author: "...Nilima Rao was born in Fiji to parents who descended from sugar cane plantation workers and has used this backdrop for her debut novel, A Disappearance in Fiji. [She]...joins the likes of Qiu Xiaolong and Alexander McCall Smith, authors who write as much about place as they are about the crimes at hand."

[GailW]

I finished this last evening and am quite pleased with it. ( I'll hide any spoilers for now. ) The second book, "A Shipwreck in Fiji" is scheduled for 2025. And it's already on my "want" list!

The mystery of the missing Indian woman is resolved but in a twisty way - there is so much more to the story with other mysteries (including why Akal ended up there in the first place.) An appreciative relationship, possibly friendship, is developed during the investigation between Akal, one of his Fijian colleagues, and a white doctor from the town. All three work on the investigation, the doctor being needed for some because none of the white plantation owners will talk to an Indian, even if he is with the police. Their relationship brings a bit of levity to the story, and I'm hoping all three characters will be in the next one.

There is quite a bit of racism, quite central to the story. (view spoiler)[ The historical reason for the Indians actually being in Fiji is solely because of the need for "indentured" people to work the plantations, because the Fijian government did not allow for that to happen to their constituents. (hide spoiler)]

I quite enjoyed this!

[NancyJ]

I just downloaded this from hoopla. I’m looking forward to it.