I love to read really smart, well written mysteries! They can be difficult to find sometimes but when you do, it's amazing! I would recommend this novel to fans of Tana French as there are similarities between this novel and Tana French's novels in terms of their being intelligent and well written mysteries. Complex characters, a heartbreaking story, high quality writing and great pacing made this one stand out to me! I loved every moment of it and can't wait to see what is to come from Ausma Ze...

Everything about the concept of this debut novel intrigued me: a disgraced and demoted second-generation Canadian Muslim police investigator, Khattuck, finds himself investigating the suspicious death of a man who turns out to be the Bosnian Serb war criminal, Dražen Krstić. Krstić had changed his name to Christopher Drayton and had settled into a life of comfort in Toronto. The NYT had just such a story leading their (3.1.15) Sunday edition last week, so we know it is entirely plausible that Bo...

3.5 stars. A complex and at times heartbreaking novel, whose true focus is the devastation of the Bosnian War and the mystery of Western "neutrality", as war crimes of savage proportions were perpetuated on the Muslim population by Serbian militia. The death of Christopher Drayton, who fell from a steep cliff, is the impetus which introduces us to detectives Esa Khattak and Rachel Getty, with Toronto Community Policing. The list of suspects is lengthy and at times convoluted (perhaps intended to...

HOLY COW. That was good.For a full review check out: http://youtu.be/sSmlEzXCGCg

The Unquiet Dead has been on my radar for ages, as I’ve seen it on several best audiobook mystery lists. The book follows Detective Rachel Getty and her boss, Esa Khattak. The duo investigates culturally sensitive cases. They’re surprised to be handed a case of a wealthy, white man’s fall from a cliff near his house, that is, until it turns out the man wasn’t who he had been pretending to be. Instead, it would appear he was a war criminal tied to the genocide in Bosnia. The book takes almost as

Rounded up from 4.5 stars. This debut is the first in a series that's now five books strong, and I'm working my way through the rest. The Canadian procedurals center the investigative team of detective Esa Khattak and his assistant Rachel Getty, who are often called upon to investigate crimes in the Muslim community of Toronto, navigating cultural and political divides to do so. I beg you, do NOT read the spoiler-laden reviews of this book, or even the jacket copy! I'll just say that the pair is...

Simply superb. Harrowing and compelling, defying genres, The Unquiet Dead left a mark on me and I'll be thinking about it for a long time. It's a crime thriller, it's a historical fiction, it's a war story. It's beautiful and heartbreaking.Dark and brutal at times, moody and bleak, I couldn't stop reading, even when at times it left me struggling to breathe. I'm at a loss to find words to explain how beautiful that book is despite it's horrific subject. So powerful and haunting, The Unquiet Dead...

An incredibly powerful novel, setting a mystery within the context of the war in the former Yugoslavia – really hitting home about what happened there and creating a group of unforgettable characters. This had me in tears an awful lot of the time.I, of course, am old enough to remember that time but being removed from it, watching images on the television that never really got to the heart of the matter, you don’t really get how godawful that war was, how many lives were lost, what went on there...

After I had finished this book, I kept wondering "Why?". Why did the author use such a totally unlikely detective story to showcase the horrors at Srebrenica? If I gave examples, I would be revealing too much of the story, but I ask anyone who has read the book to consider how probable this mystery story is. To me, this lack of verisimilitude took away from the real story which the author wanted to tell - the genocide of Muslims in Bosnia.I also question why the author chose to make one of the c...

This is an interesting and eye opening debut. Really thought provoking. At the time of the Bosnian crisis I wrapped up in my own misery and while I know there was an atrocity I remember it mostly as headline news rather than the full details. So as well as a gripping murder mystery I found the book to be so educational. Like WW2 these are war crimes that should never be forgotten and even in fiction it's possible to work towards bringing knowledge. So for that thank you.The storyline itself - a

The Unquiet Dead has moved me emotionally like no other mystery ever has before and is, quite possibly, one of the best books I've read. I will admit to being an historian and the amount of research that Khan invested in this book is staggering. The mystery involvess the death of Christopher Drayton. Was it accidental, murder or even suicide that led Drayto over the Canadian bluffs. Even more mysterious is the question of Drayton's true identity. It falls to Detective Rachel Gerry and her boss,

Excellent police procedural set in Toronto. The characters were human and believable, and the mystery intriguing. When the murder victim is a bad person, how vigorously should justice be pursued? If you're Sgt. Rachel Getty, it's all the way. I enjoyed the setting and characters, but found it hard to cope with the details of the Muslim genocide in Bosnia. Important book.

For me, what this book comes down to is the fact that the author doesn’t really show a lot of talent for fiction writing. She has impressive credentials and clearly knows what’s what in terms of Bosnia and Srebrenica, and I like that she brought those things into her debut. However, The Unquiet Dead is poorly written, sloppily constructed, and very troubling in relation to female representation and the attitude adopted toward all female characters. I wanted to like this book, but appreciation fo...

In this excellent debut novel, Ausma Zehanat Khan presents a story with crime old and possibly new; a mystery of identity and possibly murder or was it accident; reminders of genocide as well as the need for and cost of justice; social ills at home and abroad. She works with a very bold pen and does it very, very well. The plotting and characters are well done and eminently believable. The prose is equal to her task.In one example of the beauty and elegance of her prose, I've selected a sentence...

Up until a few years ago I had never read any books like this. By that I mean the books that are crime fiction but also break your heart. The majority of the books that I had read regarding the atrocities of war were committed during WW2. The Unquiet Dead which is based around events that occurred in 1995, 50 years later, show that nothing had changed. Men, women and children losing their lives due to ethnic cleansing. I remember the events that happened in the former Yugoslavia. I had seen repo...

'Patriotism, nationalism,' she said impatiently. 'Call it what you wish. Mine the only flag, mine the only way. All else is inferior, trample it underfoot. Despise it, detest it.' Harrowing and upsetting, Khan takes an unflinching look at how the horrors of 'ethnic cleansing' in 1990s Bosnia reverberate into the present. Using the structure of a crime novel, she presents us with a disturbing amount of real-life testimony, of guilt confessions from the later war crime hearings, and material fr

In this series debut by Ausma Zehanat Khan, the reader faces some of the most traumatic storytelling imaginable of a set of recent historical events, offset by a Canadian police procedural that does not wane at any point. Khan writes with a passion and develops a powerful piece that is as much about Canadian society as many other locations around the world. One part of the Toronto Police Service is the Community Relations branch, responsible for working with and solving crimes within the city’s

This book is one that I have been meaning to read for some time. It is set in Canada and involves a police officer Esa Khattak, a muslim of Pakastani descent. He runs a unit of people who get landed with cases that may involve certain ethnic groups. He is at first puzzled as to why the death of a Christopher Drayton is handed to him and his partner Rachel Getty. However, as the story unfolds it appears that the death may be linked to Bosnian war crimes.Rachel is the officer who we learn far more...

The Unquiet Dead is a mystery novel tackling a very dark part of human history. Though it provides a powerful critique of the Bosnian war, it fails to deliver a satisfying novel. The foundation of the novel is meant to center on Rachel Getty and her superior Esa Khattak. While Khan hints at interesting character motivations, I never really bought into the things that she claimed the characters were supposed to be. They did not seem particularly close which was unfortunate since other characters

To be published on 13/1/2015Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for my review copy.This is a moving and intelligent debut from Canadian/British author Ausma Zehanat Khan.It is a story of revenge and retribution, with flashbacks to Bosnia in the 1990s and the horrors of rape camps and ethnic cleansing. Set in Canada, we follow Inspector Esa Khattak who heads the CPS (Community Policing Section) and his partner, Rachel Getty. They deal with racial and politically sensitive crimes. Khattak