Whitefly by Moroccan author, Abdelilah Hamdouchi is a detective story set in the exotic city of Tangiers. As four bodies wash up on a local beach a detective who goes by the nickname of Laafrit is assigned the case. He needs to find out who they are, why they died and who is to blame. At first it seemed like a case of illegal immigrants who are often tossed into the ocean and left to drown, but when one of the bodies turned out to have four bullets in him, Laafrit knew he an unusual case on his hands.

I found this a fascinating read, as much for the colorful setting as for the murder plot. Laafrit, which means crafty, is a likeable character who is often surrounded by rather incompetent assistants. As in many police stories, humour is used to offset the grim reality. Throughout the course of the book, the country of Morocco comes to life and the author, without adding much social criticism shows the political and economical difficulties that Morocco faces. In fact, this case ends up being very connected with agriculture and one of the main exports upon which Morocco’s economy relies on.

I was a little concerned about a few plot lines that the author made no effort to gel with the main story. I don’t know if this is part of a series, but if so, that could explain why some points were introduced and then left hanging. Also there really wasn’t a satisfactory ending even though the police worked out all the details of the case. This, however, didn’t really bother me as it wasn’t surprising that the Tangiers police couldn’t conclude their case as it turned out to be an international situation. I thought the translation was very well done and I would like to read more by this author. ( )

I swear they must have forgotten to print the rest of the book, at least in the copy I bought. Yes. We have (probably) the "who" but so much of the conclusion seems to be missing. I can't fully express my annoyance without spoilers, so I'll stop now, but dang it. I'm so disappointed. ( )