The famously acerbic author, poet, and alcoholic Charles Bukowski once said, “Without literature, life is hell.” Sure, he was likely drunk and didn’t remember saying it, but that doesn’t make the quote any less profound. Great works of fiction entertain and inspire. They educate and heal. Yes, even crime fiction. In fact, especially crime fiction.…
In his marvelous introduction to the Istanbul of the 1860s in The Janissary Tree, Jason Goodwin invites the reader into a city poised between worlds—in the process of modernizing, but clinging to the rites and traditions of the past; hungry, hustling, magnificent, yet quick to betray even the city’s most impervious elites. The Sublime Porte…
From the critically acclaimed author Ausma Zehanat Khan, A Deadly Divide is the devastatingly powerful fifth thriller featuring beloved series detectives Esa Khattak and Rachel Getty. Esa Khattak and Rachel Getty, detectives with Canada’s Community Policing Section, are called in to the most violent crime scene they’ve ever attended—the shooting of worshippers in a mosque in the…
A Deadly Divide by critically acclaimed author Ausma Zehanat Khan is the fifth book in the Rachel Getty and Esa Khattak series—a piercingly observed, gripping thriller that reveals the fractures that try to tear us all apart, from the once-tight partnership between detectives Esa and Rachel to the truth about a deeply divided nation. Prologue The watcher…
A Deadly Divide by critically acclaimed author Ausma Zehanat Khan is the fifth book in the Rachel Getty and Esa Khattak series—a piercingly observed, gripping thriller that reveals the fractures that try to tear us all apart, from the once-tight partnership between detectives Esa and Rachel to the truth about a deeply divided nation. In the aftermath…
A Dangerous Crossing by Ausma Zehanat Khan is a the fourth book in the Rachel Getty & Esa Khattak series. I had two great regrets upon finishing this novel. The first—and one I am certain Ausma Zehanat Khan aims to elicit in her readers—is that I do not do more to aid in the humanitarian…
A Dangerous Crossing by Ausma Zehanat Khan is a the fourth book in the Rachel Getty & Esa Khattak series (available February 13, 2018). For Inspector Esa Khattak and Sergeant Rachel Getty, the Syrian refugee crisis is about to become personal. Esa’s childhood friend, Nathan Clare, calls him in distress: his sister, Audrey, has vanished…
Ausma Zehanat Khan once again dazzles in The Language of Secrets, a brilliant mystery woven into a profound and intimate story of humanity. Get a digital copy of Ausma Zehanat Khan's The Language of Secrets for only $2.99 through February 5th! Detective Esa Khattak heads up Canada's Community Policing Section, which handles minority-sensitive cases across…
Every Wednesday, we here at Criminal Element will put together a list of Staff Picks of the books that published the day before—sharing the ones that we are looking forward to reading the most! This was a great week for international mystery and thriller fans! Charles Cumming released the 3rd installment in the Thomas Kell…
Among the Ruins by Ausma Zehanat Khan is the 3rd book in the Rachel Getty and Esa Khattak series (available February 14, 2017). On leave from Canada’s Community Policing department, Esa Khattak is traveling in Iran, reconnecting with his cultural heritage and seeking peace in the country’s beautiful mosques and gardens. But Khattak’s supposed break…
