Sergeant Akal Singh gets in over his head investigating a purported industrial accident in 1917 Fiji—as he decides whether to make a permanent home on the island, or seek his fortune elsewhere.
Fiji, 1917. It has been three years since Sergeant Akal Singh was semi-forcibly relocated to the burgeoning colony, and in that time, he has solved two major cases and made several deep friendships. However, he has never given up hope that he’ll be able to leave the island and resume a more illustrious policing career in Hong Kong or his native India, and now, an exciting job offer to investigate indentured labor conditions across the British Raj could be the exit ticket he’s been waiting for.
Before he can take the job, though, he finds himself swept up in a strange investigation in Suva. A young widow arrives at the police station asking for information about her husband’s murder—but Akal’s senior officer harshly dismisses her, insisting the death was an industrial accident. When Akal’s fiery friend Katherine, an aspiring journalist, picks up the story, Akal is roped into helping, too, and soon learns that the man didn’t even work at the site where his body was found—clearly, it was no accident. But the more questions he tries to ask, the more the threads of his investigation tighten around him like a spider’s web, keeping him from digging further. It’s very clear something suspicious is going on in Fiji, and it is once again all up to Akal and his friends to get to the bottom of it. Will this case finally convince Akal to commit to life in Fiji—or will it spur him to say farewell forever?
Nilima Rao’s delightful historical mystery series, “alive with well-drawn characters and deftly plotted with a number of twists” (The Washington Post), perfectly balances deep insights about colonialism in turn-of-the-century Fiji with sparkling humor and an unforgettable, deeply likable cast.
