Reviews

This book will simultaneously make you want to go to Iran (beautiful descriptions of amazing mosques and gorgeous scenic bridges!) and make you not want to go to Iran (imprisoning and torturing dissidents... yeah).

faith_the_librarian's review against another edition

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4.0

Among the Ruins is book number three in the Esa Khattak/Rachel Getty mystery series by Ausma Zehanat Khan. Although it’s not necessary to read The Unquiet Dead (Book 1) or The Language of Secrets (Book 2) before this novel, it might be helpful, if only to explain some of the backstory of Khattak’s and Getty’s personal lives. As with those two novels, Khan uses a mystery to explore a real life political issue: human rights abuses in Iran. Esa Khattak is on leave from Canada’s Community Policing department and decides to take a vacation in Iran to explore the country’s cultural sites, mosques and gardens. However, his vacation is cut short when he is contacted by a Canadian agent who wants him to look into the death of a prominent Iranian-Canadian filmmaker. His partner, Rachel Getty, is home in Canada and Khattak finds that he has to navigate part of the case alone. His work becomes more dangerous as he discovers that he is being followed by both political dissidents and agents of the Iranian state. Meanwhile, Getty goes to work in Toronto to find out more about an international conspiracy involving the former Shah of Iran and the famous jewel, the Darye-Nur. I really enjoyed this novel. Khan sheds light on the various human rights abuses that political dissidents endure in Iran without being heavy handed. I sympathized with their plight but still enjoyed the mystery. The two leads are both compelling characters who are intelligent, multi-dimensional and real. Best of all, Khan creates a mystery that will literally keeping you guessing until the last few pages.

ARC provided by NetGalley.

readingwithhippos's review against another edition

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4.0

Ausma Zehanat Khan writes the smartest mysteries ever. If you want to travel the world while investigating murder, her books should be on your list. Canadian cops Esa Khattak and Rachel Getty are an unstoppable team--so unstoppable they can collaborate on a murder case when they’re halfway across the world from each other. Esa is on leave in Iran when a Canadian filmmaker is arrested and killed while in custody, and even though getting involved is highly risky to him personally, with Rachel’s help from back home he just might be able to uncover the truth and avoid an international incident. Khan has a background as a human rights lawyer and a knack for writing empathetic, relatable characters. This is the third book in a series, and I heartily recommend the first two books as well.

leavingsealevel's review against another edition

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2.0

I like this series a lot, but did *not* like how this one ended.

mpr2000's review against another edition

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5.0

First of all, if you haven’t read any of the previous books by Ausma Zehanat Khan, you are missing an amazing writer, every book is special and told beautifully, even for a crime book! All her books have a political background, in this case based in Iran, they are always controversial cases which our main detective has to resolve. Even if this is the third book of this series, you can read it as standalone, any character’s background is fully explained, but really the books are so good that you should start from the beginning!
I think this is the most complex case I’ve read in this series, because you don’t really know what is happening, not because the narrator is omitting something, but because our characters don’t know neither the truth. And that’s what keeps you reading the story, like a precious candy, where you have to look for the wrapping if you want to enjoy the sweet taste of it!
Page by page, the story gets more interesting and dangerous, because Esa is risking his life to discover what happened to Zahra’s. The most important question in the book is; would you sacrifice your life to save your loved ones?

nhussain's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.75

cook_memorial_public_library's review against another edition

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4.0

Recommended by Jo. Check our catalog: https://encore.cooklib.org/iii/encore/search/C__Samong%20the%20ruins%20khan__Orightresult__U?lang=eng&suite=gold

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