Historical Mysteries

A gruesome prologue sets the scene for a compelling story - twelve years earlier, we (as readers) see a young British officer unable to rejoin his squad brutally slain by Afghani soldiers. Twelve years later we join the same British base in the Afghan hills as the edge of the frontier. Joe Sandilands of Scotland Yard is going there to visit his old friend and wartime companion, James Lindsay, now commander at Gor Khatri. Joe's "vacation" is complicated when various other visitors join him - a brash young American, Lily; a Pathan Prince, and an assortment of other British colonials, who might seem very familiar to anyone who's ever read an E.M. Forester novel. When the Prince is found dead, Joe and James are given a week by the Afghans to solve his murder or else an ugly war will erupt.

Joe's inquiry takes him off the base with a handpicked group into the Afghani hills - as we've recently read in the news, they are dotted with caves and secret hiding places - even whole villages - that can't be seen by planes overhead. The feeling of tension, racial and otherwise, of two different cultures colliding, paired with the descriptions of both the beauty and the desolation of the Afghan countryside make this an absolutely compelling read. Because Cleverly has combined this with a sharp whodunit - a story she keeps gleefully twisting this way and that - this book is one of my favorites of the year. Any writer who takes such pure, evident joy in what she does deserves, in turn, to be read and enjoyed by many readers.