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A review by meggyroussel
No Place of Refuge by Ausma Zehanat Khan
4.0
In No Place of Refuge, the author bravely tackles the subject of refugees, mixing it with a touch of politics and a personal investigation to find a close friend who has vanished abroad, leaving two dead bodies behind her. Have no fear, you won’t drown in a report-like narrative, judgmental declarations, or ‘not-so-well’ hidden messages on every subject that makes this novel so rich. I picked this new installment in the series with excitement, knowing I would travel and learn about the world in a unique way. If you are sick of the news and looking for a current, captivating, and yes, entertaining read; look no further.
From Calais’s Jungle to Canada. From Greek camps to Turkey. I watch the news, I read the papers. I lived twenty minutes from Calais, and yet, all I know about the migrant crisis as we call it is what I am fed by the TV. I didn’t have the insight to look at things in a different way before I accompanied Rachel and Esa on their trip to find NGO boss and friend Audrey. Nothing felt real. Ausma Zehanat Khan takes pictures I get from the world, then she adds stories around them, she gives faces names, she enlightens us with the intricacies coming from all sides of the issues at hand. This is fiction used at its best. She doesn’t try to change your mind, she wants you to open it to all points of view and get a sense of reality that might escape us from where we stand.
With a case involving different jurisdictions and an issue everyone wants solved without getting hands dirty, Rachel and Esa find themselves in different kinds of danger. Audrey worked for an NGO, was on Greek territory, and the bodies of a French Interpol agent and a boy were found where she was last seen. See the puzzle? Let me tell you, no, you don’t!!! It takes the team their best tactics not to stomp on anyone’s toes while figuring out who to trust to make sense of the mystery ahead. The image that came to me when I was reading was a giant quicksand. A quicksand surrounded with blood, fear, and horrors.
No Place of Refuge is not an easy read. It challenged me, it made me think, it got me emotional on so many levels. Ausma Zehanat Khan has once again carved an outstanding piece, freezing our society in this time and place forever. Religion, friendships, untold horrors, gun. The author blew me away with her ability to assemble all the ingredients I needed to get the rush of a thriller while helping me understand our world better. Tension and tears were going hand by hand, my heart turned from broken to filled with rage, and my head became haunted by the thought-provoking truths laying bare in front of my eyes.
In the meantime, personal lives are not forgotten as both Rachel and Esa must face their feelings, deal with the emotions building from the case, and find ways to accept the new landscape of their life as time passes…
I said it before when reviewing previous novels from the series, but I need to mention it again. The research and knowledge poured into this book is of high standard. The details are so striking that it makes the novel even scarier, more real, and most of all, authentic.
No Place of Refuge is a bold novel committed to open eyes and take readers on a deadly race. Thank you, Ausma Zehanat Khan, for using your talent and work to create a new genre; the fiction which tugs at the seams of the veil of our world.
From Calais’s Jungle to Canada. From Greek camps to Turkey. I watch the news, I read the papers. I lived twenty minutes from Calais, and yet, all I know about the migrant crisis as we call it is what I am fed by the TV. I didn’t have the insight to look at things in a different way before I accompanied Rachel and Esa on their trip to find NGO boss and friend Audrey. Nothing felt real. Ausma Zehanat Khan takes pictures I get from the world, then she adds stories around them, she gives faces names, she enlightens us with the intricacies coming from all sides of the issues at hand. This is fiction used at its best. She doesn’t try to change your mind, she wants you to open it to all points of view and get a sense of reality that might escape us from where we stand.
With a case involving different jurisdictions and an issue everyone wants solved without getting hands dirty, Rachel and Esa find themselves in different kinds of danger. Audrey worked for an NGO, was on Greek territory, and the bodies of a French Interpol agent and a boy were found where she was last seen. See the puzzle? Let me tell you, no, you don’t!!! It takes the team their best tactics not to stomp on anyone’s toes while figuring out who to trust to make sense of the mystery ahead. The image that came to me when I was reading was a giant quicksand. A quicksand surrounded with blood, fear, and horrors.
No Place of Refuge is not an easy read. It challenged me, it made me think, it got me emotional on so many levels. Ausma Zehanat Khan has once again carved an outstanding piece, freezing our society in this time and place forever. Religion, friendships, untold horrors, gun. The author blew me away with her ability to assemble all the ingredients I needed to get the rush of a thriller while helping me understand our world better. Tension and tears were going hand by hand, my heart turned from broken to filled with rage, and my head became haunted by the thought-provoking truths laying bare in front of my eyes.
In the meantime, personal lives are not forgotten as both Rachel and Esa must face their feelings, deal with the emotions building from the case, and find ways to accept the new landscape of their life as time passes…
I said it before when reviewing previous novels from the series, but I need to mention it again. The research and knowledge poured into this book is of high standard. The details are so striking that it makes the novel even scarier, more real, and most of all, authentic.
No Place of Refuge is a bold novel committed to open eyes and take readers on a deadly race. Thank you, Ausma Zehanat Khan, for using your talent and work to create a new genre; the fiction which tugs at the seams of the veil of our world.