The best book I read this month was A Dangerous Crossing, an Esa Khattak mystery by Ausma Zehanat Khan. This isn’t the first time Khan’s series has appeared in this blog series. The previous installment in the series—Among the Ruins—was also a Best Book I Read.
This episode of the series focused on the Mediterranean refugee crisis and the Syrian civil war, as Esa Khattak and his partner, Rachel Getty, are sent to Greece to locate a missing aid worker—who happens to be a childhood friend of Khattak’s. Khattak and Getty are overcome by what they find in the camps in the Greek islands, and they soon find themselves trying to solve two mysteries: the missing aid worker and a missing Syrian refugee.
The story is gripping and harrowing, with well-plotted twists and turns. The characters of Khattak and Getty are as engaging and sympathetic as always. There are a couple of romantic subplots in the book, one of which works and one of which didn’t (for me). The one that works is one that has been hinted at in earlier installments in the series. With the foundation that’s been laid, the development of the romance here made sense. It felt organic. The other one seems to have come out of the blue. While the characters do have a history, explained in previous books, the romantic development here felt rushed and forced, in a way. I felt blindsided and confused by it. But these subplots are minor and do not overshadow the tension and stakes of the larger missing person mysteries.
The next book in the series, A Deadly Divide, came out earlier this year. Don’t be surprised if I end up writing that one up too!