Continuing with Ausma Zehanat Khan’s Canadian police procedural series, I remain enthralled with the themes and topics that come to the forefront in a single novel. It has forced me to take a harder look at myself as what is soon becoming the ‘invisible minority’ in my country of birth, while also requiring that I step back and explore some of the general sentiments that pieces of mass fiction I have read make regularly. Not only does Khan pack a punch with her story, but she challenges the read...

Vacillating between 4 and 5 stars, which is a positive indicator in itself. Review to come.

This is the second in this series featuring INSET Detectives Esa Khattak and Rachel Getty and it's the first series, I've read with a Detective who is Muslim and who works on unique cases in Toronto. Khan's storytelling not only incorporates the crime and police procedures, she delves deep into the different aspects of a thriving Muslim community. In this case, Esa and Rachel are investigating a murder connected to an ultra-conservative mosque. Esa is again torn by between faith and family and h...

“Justice must not only be done, it must be seen to be done”Oh my! Canada is so set up for the snow! 200 salt trucks and 600 ploughs for Toronto alone!! I’m a slight obsessive when it comes to snow as I’ve always been a bit of a nervous driver. I’ve got better over the years, even managing to correct a skid whilst on my own earlier this year. But anyway back to The Language of Secrets.How personal is this case for Khattak? His old friend murdered, his rival and his ex partner involved in the inve...

A complicated case that reminds me strongly of the Toronto 18 case of many years ago. Like the real life plotters, the people involved in this case are planning some sort of terrorist act on Canadian soil. Esa Khattak and Rachel Getty become involved because one of the supposed plotters was found murdered. I say supposed because in reality that man was working with the RCMP and had infiltrated the group.Esa encounters difficulties constantly from the beginning of his investigation, primarily fro...

This is the first work I read by Ausma Khan who poetically gives those of us who are not familiar with Muslim traditions a look into the community and misconceptions about the culture we hear about through various channels of media. I think Ausma did an amazing job with this novel through her in-depth research surrounding the real-life case of the Toronto 18, where 18 suspects were arrested on terrorism charges beause they were radicalized by jihadist websites and influenced by a charismatic ide...

A special thank you to St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Talented author, Ausma Zehanat Khan returns following her debut, The Unquiet Dead, (an emotional, and haunting mystery of horrific crimes committed against Muslims in Bosnia, based on Srebrenica massacre of 1995.). She heats up the intensity with a new murder-mystery thriller, featuring Canadian dynamic duo (Rachel Getty & Esa Khattak #2) caught up into a complex world, where lo...

3 1/2 stars. The Language of Secrets had a bit of a messy and overly dense plot, but I still liked this mystery well enough because of the characters, topic and setting. It's the second mystery featuring Detective Esa Khattak. Set in contemporary Toronto, it is loosely based on a fictional follow up to the Toronto 18, which involved a terrorist plot that led to the arrest of 18 individuals in 2006. In this story, another group is fomenting a similar act of terrorism, and one of their members is

2.5 starsA little over a year ago, I wrote probably one of my most glowing reviews ever for The Unquiet Dead, Ausma Zehanat Khan's spectacular launch of her Rachel Getty and Esa Khattak series. I concluded that review with an expectation that this would be "a terrific new mystery series." I am sorry to say that the second entry, The Language of Secrets, crushed my expectations.The Unquiet Dead centered around the Bosnian war, and Khan's expertise as a scholar of international human rights law, f...

This stunningly complex police procedural set in Canada is told with grace and poignancy grabbing the reader’s attention from first page to the last word. The storyline is loosely based on a terrorist attempt in Canada in 2006 and feels very current based on recent headlines. But the strength of this novel is the characters and the author’s skillful development of the multi-dimensional characters and emotionally perceptive skill of the motives, reasoning, and the group and individual objectives

Justice must not only be done. It must be seen to be done. I read to escape my reality and if a book is done right, I dive right into a parallel world. This happened when I met Esa Khattak and Rachel Getty in The Unquiet Dead. I was eagerly waiting for another story from the author. I was right to be eager, and I was right to feel in good hands before even opening the second book.Esa and Rachel have suffered the consequences of their last investigation, and I immediately felt al

I know so little about the events in this book, so little about the Muslim religion as a whole. So this was a very eye opening book for me and one that is very different. A Muslim Detective in Toronto and his younger partner Rachel and an inside look at a radical cell that is based on an actual event called the Toronto 18, who intended to blow up Parliament in the summer of 2006. When Detective Khattack's friend is killed in Arlington Park after camping with a group from a mosque, Khattack is br...

Esa Khattak is just too cool.He’s thoughtful, careful and analytical. He sees the world in subtle, complex ways. Best of all, he knows who he is and what he’s up against. He’s a Muslim. He’s a detective. He works in multi-cultural Toronto. And he just happens to work in the special community policing division, handling sensitive cases. And he’s coming off a rough outing for how he managed the investigation of the murder of Christopher Drayton (in “The Unquiet Dead”). That case required diving in...

Daggone, I get into this series, frustrating my spousal unit as my focus is so rapt! This author applies an intellectual and culturally poetic perspective to her main character that at first pale I presume her words intend the opposite of what she's portraying. Upon a more careful read, I recognize her more nuanced meanings. She somehow writes other characters from their own cultural place, which often requires much less from me but makes her ability that much more astounding. Who else can blend...

The Language of Secrets is the second in a series featuring Esa Khattak and Rachel Gerry, members of Canada's Community Policing Section. This book is loosely based on the actual events that occurred in 2006 called "Toronto 18" in which a group of 18 young men and women were thwarted in an attempt to blow up the Canadian Parliament. However - a huge pause here - while that is the mystery and plot of the storyline, Khan's books always are more about the characters, their lives, their emotions and...

loosely based on the real story of the 'toronto 18', the language of secrets examines radicalization. again, khan is smart, nuanced and sensitive in her storytelling. i found that this second book in the series was a little more emotionally charged than the first book, The Unquiet Dead. though both deal with very difficult subject matter, we are given more connections to esa khattak's and rachel getty's personal lives, their work histories, and their relationship with one another. the feelings o...

This second mystery featuring Esa Khattuck and Rachel Getty involves a terrorist plot loosely based on a fictional follow up to the Toronto 18 plot of a decade ago. In this instance Khattuck has become somewhat marginalized in spite of his described role of dealing with ethnically sensitive criminal matters. Here he is assigned tasks but with his hands tied--if he leaves them so. And his community, and even family, are vitally involved. As in the first book, there is excellent writing and portra...

I particularly liked Rachel Getty and her relationship with Esa Khattak. I am interested in the concept of someone who investigates cases that are sensitive for minorities. I appreciated the fact that Ausma Zehanat Khan writes with authenticity. Because I am an admirer of great poetry, I was glad to discover Adonis through The Language of Secrets. I read several of his poems online including "A Grave For New York" which is mentioned in the book. It's important to point out that although Adonis'...

This was a fascinating insight into how people get radicalized and how that process leads to so many different levels of violence. The story is also a rather scathing indictment of the Islamophobia plaguing North America at the moment, which is part of the vicious circle leading to more Muslim youths becoming radicalized. The ending was shocking, and while I usually am able to guess whodunnit fairly early on, this one had me guessing until the reveal. So unexpected and powerful. I love the chara...

It wasn't enough to say that the same faith that had produced Hassan Ashkouri had also produced Esa Khattak, good and evil sketched out in broad strokes. It wasn't easy and two-dimensional like that. Look, this is why Khan is such a good writer: she tackles difficult, complicated topics and she doesn't dumb down or over-simplify; instead, she embraces nuance and complexity with a rigorous and graceful intellectual force. Wrapped up in a story that, on the surface, might appear to be yet anoth