A Disappearance in Fiji

A charming and atmospheric debut mystery featuring a 25-year-old Indian police sergeant investigating a missing persons case in colonial Fiji 1914,Fiji: Akal Singh25would rather be anywhere but this tropical paradiseΓÇöoras he calls itΓÇ£this godforsaken island.ΓÇ¥ After a promising start to his police career in Hong KongAkal has been sent to Fiji as punishment for a humiliating professional mistake. Lonely and grumpyAkal plods through his work and dreams of getting back to Hong Kong or his native India. When an indentured Indian woman goes missing from a sugarcane plantation and FijiΓÇÖs newspapers scream ΓÇ£kidnappingΓÇ¥ the inspector-general reluctantly assigns Akal the case. Akaleager to achieve redemptionagreesΓÇöbut soon finds himself far more invested than he could have expected. Now not only is he investigating a disappearancebut also confronting the brutal realities of the indentured workersΓÇÖ existence and the racism of the British colonizers in FijiΓÇöalong with his own thorny notions of personhood and caste. Early interrogations of the white plantation ownersIndian indentured laborersand native Fijians yield only one conclusion: there is far more to this case than meets the eye. Nilima RaoΓÇÖs sparkling debut mystery offers an unflinching look at the evils of colonialismeven as it brims with witvibrant charactersand fascinating historical detail.