A Deadly Divide
A Mystery
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4.5 • 11 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
From the critically acclaimed author Ausma Zehanat Khan, A Deadly Divide is the devastatingly powerful new thriller featuring beloved series detectives Esa Khattak and Rachel Getty.
In the aftermath of a mass shooting at a mosque in Quebec, the local police apprehend Amadou Duchon—a young Muslim man at the scene helping the wounded—but release Etienne Roy, the local priest who was found with a weapon in his hands.
The shooting looks like a hate crime, but detectives Esa Khattak and Rachel Getty sense there is more to the story. Sent to liaise with a community in the grip of fear, they find themselves in fraught new territory, fueled by the panic and suspicion exploited by a right-wing radio host.
As Rachel and Esa grapple to stop tensions shutting the case down entirely, all the time, someone is pointing Esa in another direction, a shadowy presence who anticipates his every move.
A Deadly Divide is a piercingly observed, gripping thriller that reveals the fractures that try to tear us all apart: from the once-tight partnership between detectives Esa and Rachel, to the truth about a deeply divided nation.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Issues of religion, culture, and racism take center stage in Khan's outstanding fifth novel featuring Insp. Esa Khattak, the Toronto-based head of Canada's Community Policing Section (after 2018's A Dangerous Crossing). Esa and his partner, Sgt. Rachel Getty, travel to the small Quebec town of Saint-Isidore-du-Lac, where eight people have been shot dead in a mosque in an apparent hate crime. The local police, led by racist Insp. Christian Lemaire of the S ret du Quebec, quickly arrest Amadou Duchon, a young Muslim man who was at the scene helping the wounded. The Quebec police also conduct a superficial interview with priest tienne Roy, who was holding the murder weapon, before releasing him. The priest denies having fired it. In the course of their investigation, Esa and Rachel find a town divided by cultural differences, egged on by a right-wing radio host, and panicked by immigrants and the small Muslim community whose religion is compromised by Quebec's controversial Codes of Conduct, which favor Catholics. Khan perceptively explores how fear can quickly erupt into violence.
