Reviews tagging 'Murder'

A Disappearance in Fiji by Nilima Rao

19 reviews

filmcritic23's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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jhbandcats's review against another edition

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adventurous dark informative mysterious sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The more I learn, the more realize how little I know. I knew nothing about the history of Fiji, its being a colony of England, and its sugar cane economy resting solely on indentured servants from India. 

This book delves into all these aspects of life on the island, as shown through the eyes of Akal, a disgraced Indian policeman exiled to Fiji. He doesn’t feel connected to the coolies (the workers) despite their both being Indian. As a higher caste person, he can’t - or won’t - see how similar they are. 

Akal is tasked with finding a missing coolie but it turns out to be a more far-reaching case than he first thought. This is where we learn the complicated relationship between Fiji, India, and England. We see the casual racism of the white Europeans for anyone darker, the lack of respect for a policeman who, as an Indian, has “no right” to investigate his white “betters.” This grates on Akal every time but he has to bite his tongue and pretend the racism doesn’t bother him. 

There’s a wonderful friendship between Akal (Indian), a fellow policeman (Fijian), and a doctor (Englishman). It illustrates how racial prejudice is something learned, not something inherent. To hear the three laughing together mitigates a tiny bit of the awfulness that has come before. 
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thech4nclan's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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bookfortbuilder's review against another edition

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challenging informative sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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sayhar13's review against another edition

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slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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bookscatcoffee's review against another edition

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adventurous informative mysterious sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

I enjoyed this historical procedural murder mystery!  I learned a lot about Fiji and indentured servitude and Indian migration during the racist, white supremacist, British colonization.  I appreciate that the author brought a personal perspective to her research and had a connection through her family to the story.  A bit slow at the start, and I kinda wish the MC’s past came up a bit earlier.  Worth reading!  4 stars

Historical procedural mystery with diverse characters 
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uranaishi's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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chailady's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative mysterious sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

One of the reasons I read this was because I recently visited Fiji. I love Fiji! The beautiful country and the friendly people made this trip a fantastic experience. I had no idea of their history beyond that Fiji had been a British colony. The past describe in this mystery novel was eye opening. I was horrified by the descriptions of the plantations. This is a debut novel and the writing shows. There were several editing errors and the plot progression was not quite right. The ending left me a bit frustrated. I’m hoping there is a second book and we see the author’s style improve. I did like the main character. 
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mels_reading_log's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

One of the Indian indentured servants on a local sugar cane plantation has gone missing. Most don’t care and the rest say she ran away, but one missionary claims there had to be foul play. The police department don’t want to spare a real officer to go check out this non crime, so they send their Indian officer. Just go look, and come back, keep it simple and appease everyone. Well, Akal is actually a great police officer, despite what his boss would tell you, and he isn’t letting this case go until it is solved. So what happened to the missing woman, what other shady things are going on at this plantation and why does no one want the truth?
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kal_self's review against another edition

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mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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