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laurieb755 's review for:
Detective Aunty
by Uzma Jalaluddin
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
This is my first time encountering author Uzma Jalaluddin (https://uzmajalaluddin.com/) thanks to the Modern Mrs Darcy (https://modernmrsdarcy.com/) Summer Reading Guide. The MMD crew of Ann Bogel and her team create reading guides for each season, pulling new and noteworthy books together across a wide range of areas while providing descriptions and other useful information to help readers decide if a particular book is something they want to try. I have been using MMD Reading Guides for a number of years as a diverse resource to sate my reading habit. This book did not disappoint.
Kausar Khan is a not-long-ago widowed mother of three, one of whom was tragically the victim of a hit-and-run when he was young. Her immense grief precipitated leaving her home of Toronto and establishing a new life with her husband in North Bay, where she has lived for the past 20 years at the expense of disconnecting from family and friends left behind. All that is about to change when she receives a call from her daughter Sana to ask for assistance: Sana has been arrested for murder.
A child's call for help will cause most parents to come to their aid, which of course is what Kausar did. Kausar will have to come to terms with her own demons of grief, rebuild a relationship with her daughter, try to break the stonewalling of her teenage granddaughter Maleeha, and along the way investigate what really happened to Imran the night he was killed. Imran was the owner of the Golden Crescent Plaza that housed several small shops of locally owned businesses.
I appreciated the conversations between the women, both among Kausar's peer group and also those with younger generations. Uzma makes a point of presenting how culture and expectations impact life, and how life changes – or doesn't – from generation to generation.
Uzma Jalaluddin capably creates a "whodunnit" with multiple possible suspects. With help from her best friend May they host a dinner party that promises to reveal much (if not all) regarding the crime. Present are the dead man's daughter Anjum and son Mubeen; Ilyas, one of the policemen investigating the murder; Patrick, an investor interested in purchasing the Golden Crescent Plaza; Hamza, Kausar's son-in-law; her daughter Sana and Sana's eldest (of two) children Maleeha; Sana's lawyer Jessia; Kausar's friend Nasir; Fatima, Kausar's friend from long ago, before Kausar skedaddled out of Toronto to North Bay; and Siraj, Fatima's son and an uninvited guest who arrives later with delivery of food.
It's not unlike an Agatha Christie resolution, though in this case there are still some lingering questions, setting the reader up for more of the story. And from where I sit my hope is that follow-up will be here before we know it because I want to know what happens and see all murders resolved!
Kausar Khan is a not-long-ago widowed mother of three, one of whom was tragically the victim of a hit-and-run when he was young. Her immense grief precipitated leaving her home of Toronto and establishing a new life with her husband in North Bay, where she has lived for the past 20 years at the expense of disconnecting from family and friends left behind. All that is about to change when she receives a call from her daughter Sana to ask for assistance: Sana has been arrested for murder.
A child's call for help will cause most parents to come to their aid, which of course is what Kausar did. Kausar will have to come to terms with her own demons of grief, rebuild a relationship with her daughter, try to break the stonewalling of her teenage granddaughter Maleeha, and along the way investigate what really happened to Imran the night he was killed. Imran was the owner of the Golden Crescent Plaza that housed several small shops of locally owned businesses.
I appreciated the conversations between the women, both among Kausar's peer group and also those with younger generations. Uzma makes a point of presenting how culture and expectations impact life, and how life changes – or doesn't – from generation to generation.
Uzma Jalaluddin capably creates a "whodunnit" with multiple possible suspects. With help from her best friend May they host a dinner party that promises to reveal much (if not all) regarding the crime. Present are the dead man's daughter Anjum and son Mubeen; Ilyas, one of the policemen investigating the murder; Patrick, an investor interested in purchasing the Golden Crescent Plaza; Hamza, Kausar's son-in-law; her daughter Sana and Sana's eldest (of two) children Maleeha; Sana's lawyer Jessia; Kausar's friend Nasir; Fatima, Kausar's friend from long ago, before Kausar skedaddled out of Toronto to North Bay; and Siraj, Fatima's son and an uninvited guest who arrives later with delivery of food.
It's not unlike an Agatha Christie resolution, though in this case there are still some lingering questions, setting the reader up for more of the story. And from where I sit my hope is that follow-up will be here before we know it because I want to know what happens and see all murders resolved!