This is the third book in the Ash Rashid series, and the first one I have read. I feel that this book can be enjoyed without reading the other books first. I did not feel lost at all regarding the characters.

The book starts out as a fairly straight forward murder investigation. It quickly escalates into a kidnapping, complete with ransom drop, and then into a human trafficking saga. Interspersed with all this are the flashbacks of a young boys life in Russia. I personally could have done without the Russian flashbacks. There was enough action going on in the present day, and switching back and forth got a little distracting.

The plot was fine, but not overly exciting. It moved along nicely. I don't know if there is a 4th book in this series yet, but the ending of this one leaves a pretty big cliff hanger for Ash. ( )

I have read all of the books in this Ash Rashid detective series and loved them all. In this installment of the series Ash is no longer working as a detective for the Indianapolis Police Department but has been reassigned to the community relations department. He primarily gives speeches to schools. However, on his way home from work one day he finds a car accident. Since no other officers are available, Ash is told to stay at the scene until an officer can arrive. Ash is unable not to investigate so he begins asking questions to those who were in the area when the accident happened. He determined that these responses did not add up and begins to investigate what he feels is a homicide.

As usual, author Chris Culver outdoes himself with his writing. It is fast paced with plenty of twists and turns and there is a cliffhanger ending. I also love that his protagonist is an American Muslim, albeit not much of a practitioner of his faith. Ash is an alcoholic. This is a welcome addition to American fiction and normalizes how we view Muslims in our society. ( )

This book is part of a series that centers on a Muslim police Sergeant who is also a recovering alcoholic; not that any of that directly pertains to the story line which had to do with human trafficking. Although lots of time is spent on the development of the main character, sufficient is devoted to the plot and that of other characters to make the story interesting. The story line involves the reader, but I wish more time had been spent in development of the hows and whys of the enslavement and exploitation of foreign female children, rather than the incidents leading to the detection of the crimes.
All told, an enjoyable and interesting read, I'd recommend it to anyone who likes the police procedural genre. My thanks to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this work. ( )

A Muslim police detective investigates a case of murder during Ramadan in this series procedural by Chris Culver. This cultural twist and the moral antagonizing of law enforcers vs. bad guys pushes it above the standard crime fare. The dialogue drags a bit in places, but overall a good read. A cliffhanger ending has enticed me to continue the series and maybe even read the first two. Good stuff!

Provided by publisher ( )