April 4, 2016
Rania Bakara, the principal narrator of Raphael’s compelling mystery, is the only female detective on the Palestinian police force in the occupied West Bank’s Salfit District, where her colleagues grudgingly accept her. Called out to investigate an abandoned car, Rania discovers the body of a woman on the outskirts of her village, and it’s soon obvious the victim is neither Palestinian nor Israeli. Because of the delicate situation between the Israeli and Palestinian police forces, Rania must work alongside Benny Lazar, an Israeli police officer, who seems to have much different motives when it comes to solving the crime. They determine that the deceased was Nadya Kim, an Uzbek woman who worked as nanny of sorts for Israel’s deputy defense minister. Narrating alongside Rania is Chloe, an American peace activist who’s in Palestine to advocate for nonviolence resistance. Both she and Rania work, in their own ways, to protect the innocent from easy labels like terrorist—labels that Raphael dismantles and examines in this provocative novel.
Starred review from November 1, 2015
This debut novel from writer and activist Raphael begins with an abandoned car on a Palestinian road under an Israeli bridge. The dead body of a foreign girl found nearby triggers opposing investigations by both the Palestinian and Israeli police, and the Israeli Army. Rania, the only female detective on the Palestinian force, identifies both with the victim, a young woman out of place and power in a world dominated by men, and her confessed killer, a Palestinian teen from a neighboring village. Chloe, a Jewish American journalist, lives above the family of the arrested suspect and tries to prove he is being set up. Both Rania and Chloe struggle to expose the truth before they get caught up in the constantly shifting alliances. VERDICT Raphael thoroughly captures the tension of life on the West Bank by setting a murder in a location marked by daily violence. Substantial yet humanly flawed female protagonists give depth to both the mystery of the murdered and the political and social turmoil of the region. This novel is a thoughtful recommendation for anyone hoping to explore stories set in the modern Middle East.--Catherine Lantz, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago Lib.
Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
November 1, 2015
As the only female detective on the Palestinian police force in the West Bank, Raina must endure living in occupied territory in a culture with strictly defined sex roles. Her job makes her neighbors suspicious and her husband unhappy, but she relishes the challenge as an escape from daily life in her rural village. When the body of a foreign woman appears under a bridge near that village, Rania's boss sends her to investigate, unleashing a series of events that will lead to major political scandal. A Palestinian boy from the area is charged with the crime, but Rania thinks he is innocent. She must work with an Israeli police officer, who finds her aggressive style hard to take. Neither trusts the other, but they must find a way to cooperate. Meanwhile, Chloe, a Jewish American peace activist living in the village, turns out to be Rania's real ally, offering connections on both Palestinian and Israeli sides of the Green Line. The mix of murder and politics makes for fascinating reading, made even richer by the revealing glimpse of life in the occupied territories.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)