Marilyn's Mystery Reads

When I reviewed Nilima Rao’s first novel, A Disappearance in Fiji two years ago, I was delighted to learn about a country I was unfamiliar with.  Returning to that island nation with A Shipwreck in Fiji, set in 1915, I found it an even more intriguing story.  Readers can’t possibly visit every country in the world, but mysteries can take us everywhere.

Sergeant Akal Singh is the protagonist of the series, an ethnic Indian who had been on the Hong Kong police force before an innocent, although mischaracterized, relationship with a white woman forced his supervisors to send him out of the country.  He is now a member of the Fiji police force, based in the nation’s capital Suva, trying to rebuild his life and reputation and return to Hong Kong.

However, his less-than-supportive superior, Inspector-General Jonathan Thurstrom, has other plans for Akal.  He tells the sergeant that he is to escort two English women to the small island of Ovalau as a favor to the editor of the Fiji Times.  When Akal demurs, saying he’s never been there and has no knowledge of it, he discovers that Ovalau native Constable Taviti Tukana will also be going, partly to guide Akal and the women and partly to see his uncle, an important tribal chief on the island.

In addition to chaperoning Mary Clancy and her niece Katherine Murray, Akal is told to keep a lookout for a group of Germans who are allegedly on the island.  Thurstrom, along with Akal and Taviti, is incredulous about the report headquarters received, saying that there’s no way any Germans would be on Ovalau; what would they be doing there, thousands of miles from the fighting in Europe?  But given how quickly gossip can become “facts” and lead to hysteria among the island’s population, Akal is told to find and shut down the source of this information, false though it is.

As well, Akal is told to keep an eye on Constable Kumar, new to the Ovalau force, who is “wet behind the ears” and apparently unable to stop the rumors about the Germans.  With Taviti dealing with his uncle’s insistence that he return to Ovalau and prepare to be chief upon his uncle’s death, Atal and Taviti will be kept busy, especially since they find a murdered man almost upon their arrival.

Akal, Taviti, Katherine, and Mary arrive in Levuka, Ovalau’s capital; Akal and Taviti’s plan is to first talk to the person who reported the alleged German landing party.  They’re too late, however; Sanjay Lal has been murdered, his shop ransacked, and although Lal wasn’t popular with the Levuka community, there doesn’t appear anyone who benefits from his death.

Nilima Rao, a self-described “culturally confused” person who is a Fijian Indian Australian woman, has written an excellent second volume in this series.  The characters are realistic, the setting is beautifully described, and the plot will keep readers mystified until the novel’s end.  To her I say vanaka vaka levu (thank you very much).

You can read more about Ms. Rao at various sites on the web.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her website.  In addition to book review posts, there are sections featuring Golden Oldies, Past Masters and Mistresses, and an About Marilyn column that features her opinions about everything to do with mystery novel.