A Sergeant Akal Singh Mystery Series

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.

Fiji, 1915: when a purported sighting of Germans on the run from the Great War turns deadly, Sergeant Akal Singh reluctantly investigates in this vibrant follow-up to A Disappearance in Fiji.

Sergeant Akal Singh, an unwilling transplant to Fiji, is just starting to settle into his life in the capital city of Suva when he is sent to Ovalau, a neighboring island, on a series of fool’s errands. First, investigate reports of German soldiers in the area, thousands of miles from the front in Europe. Second, chaperone two strong-willed European ladies, Mary and Katherine, on a sightseeing tour. And third, supervise the only police officer currently there, an eighteen-year-old constable with a penchant for hysterics.

Accompanied by his friend Taviti, who is visiting his uncle, the local chief, Akal sets off on these seemingly straightforward tasks. But he soon becomes embroiled in local issues: the gruesome death of an unpopular local and the imprisonment of a group of Norwegian sailors in Taviti’s uncle’s village. To add to Akal’s woes, Katherine, the charming aspiring journalist, harbors an agenda of her own. Will Akal be able to keep her—and himself—out of trouble before anybody else gets killed?

Nilima Rao’s debut, A Disappearance in Fiji, was a critical darling and award-winner, ending up on multiple best-of-year roundups. This next installment in the Sergeant Akal Singh series has all the charm and sparkle of the first book, with even more fascinating historical insight into the realities of life on Fiji at the start of the twentieth century.

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 Singh, 25, would rather be anywhere but this tropical paradise—or, as he calls it, “this godforsaken island.” After a promising start to his police career in Hong Kong, Akal has been sent to Fiji as punishment for a humiliating professional mistake. Lonely and grumpy, Akal 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 Fiji’s newspapers scream “kidnapping,” the inspector-general reluctantly assigns Akal the case. Akal, eager to achieve redemption, agrees—but soon finds himself far more invested than he could have expected.

Now not only is he investigating a disappearance, but also confronting the brutal realities of the indentured workers’ existence and the racism of the British colonizers in Fiji—along with his own thorny notions of personhood and caste. Early interrogations of the white plantation owners, Indian indentured laborers, and native Fijians yield only one conclusion: there is far more to this case than meets the eye.

Nilima Rao’s sparkling debut mystery offers an unflinching look at the evils of colonialism, even as it brims with wit, vibrant characters, and fascinating historical detail.