4.5

Blood Betrayal once again follows Detective Inaya Rahman and the Community Response Unit, but this time there are a series of mysteries that all connect in such interesting ways. At the start, a veteran Blackwater police officer is involved in the shooting of an unarmed young Black man. Then in the next chapter Rahman finds the man who orchestrated the assault that caused her to leave Chicago, John Broda, on her doorstep because his son has been involved in the shooting of a young Latino man in Denver. What follows is a twisty and timely police procedural that I had a hard time putting down.

The way Khan has built the community of Blackwater Falls and the camaraderie of the Community Response Unit is top tier. I love that she takes the traditional police procedural and focuses on how the police have historically failed to serve communities that aren’t white and the different ways that BIPOC individuals have chosen to react, whether it be join the police and try to change within or organize against or others. There are discussions of race and religion and immigration and so much more and I think it’s all handled with a lot of care.

And the way the plot(s) played out in this story had me anxious and gasping as I turned the pages. Personally, I’m undecided on how long I’ll stick with this series but there are a couple of macro plots that I want to see the end of so I will definitely be picking up the next book when it’s released.

Thank you Netgalley for the advance reader copy of Blood Betrayal by Ausma Zehanat Khan in exchange for an honest review. This book was very relevant to today's issues, with racial prejudice and violence. There was an interesting murder mystery and this book kept me reading.

I received a free copy of this book from St Martins Press through netgalley.com. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I love these timely police procedurals. Inaya is a young cop who is trying to make a difference in her community. She comes from a devout muslim family and is very secure in her faith. Her boss Waqas Seif is drawn to Inaya, her fearlessness, her devotion and her strength. However in order to be with her Seif knows he needs to accept a part of himself that he has a hard time with.

These books are so much more than a police procedural. It is about faith, community, and culture. I love that the main characters are strong female women in cultures where the men are usually the main focus. Be it through Machismo or faith, these characters prove that this is in many regards illusion.

The shooting of 2 unarmed men of color lead us down a path where things are not always what they seem and instead of looking at things straight on you may need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Fantastic writing I am hooked on this series.

Having read other books by Khan, I was excited to read this one and revisit the characters I'd gotten to know in the first book of this series. It does not disappoint, though I felt that it bogged down in places and there was a lot of story to keep track of! Not to mention the different issues that arise. But if the reader sticks with it, they will be very satisfied at how it all comes together in the end. Khan is really skilled at interweaving and I look forward to more stories in this setting and with the same characters.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. Khan is a great writer!

We’re back in Blackwater Falls with the Community Response Unit. This time, the unit is assigned to tackle two office involved shootings that resulted in the deaths of Mateo Ruiz and Duantee Reed. Inaya and her colleagues are forced to tackle their own prejudices and will need to examine their own beliefs as they investigate the two crimes.

As with the first book in the series I really enjoyed our main characters. Inaya, certainly has some additional growth and we even ‘finally’ get more of the backstory of why she left Chicago. In addition, both Areesha Adams and Caterina Hernandez are back and have their own POVs throughout the story. I find the added perspectives from them round out the story well, but even so all three women have some very personal matters that are occurring simultaneously with the investigation and other reasons that make these cases personal to them. It certainly adds to the overall story, and in Detective series such as these, I do love getting to be inside the head of more than just our main character.

With that said, there is A LOT going on in this book. Just like in Book #1, I felt there was so much going on. It’s one thing to weave complex mysteries together but I just felt that the two independent murders, Seif & Inaya’s somewhat romance, each of the women’s and Seif’s individual issues, plus the themes of racism, immigration, and police brutality was just too much to pack into just over 300 pages. At the same time, the story (just like in book 1) has a pacing issue. I’m not sure how I would fix it, but once Duante’s murder was resolved I was ready for the book to be done and instead I had what felt like another hour or two left on my audio to listen to. The romance still doesn’t feel flushed out, and I still think it feels somewhat forced. I did enjoy getting to know Seif’s brothers and Inaya’s family more.

I would highly recommend you read this series in order, as there is significant character development that happens, and I feel readers might easily become lost if reading them out of order. As with Blackwater Falls, I primarily listened to the audiobook, and I found it to be once again well done. Overall, I did like this one more than the first, so I’ll probably continue with the series, but I still feel it’s trying to do ‘too much’ at a time. This is certainly an interesting commentary on the middle east and immigration considering what is happening in the world now.

Blood Betrayal is out now. Huge thank you to Minotaur Books and St. Martin’s Press for my copy in exchange for my honest opinion. If you liked this review, please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my Instagram @speakingof.books.

Blood Betrayal is the second in Ausma Zehanat Khan's remarkable series framed around the character of Inaya Rahman.
Inaya works with a community relations police task force in a suburb of Denver. As a Muslim woman, she and the diverse team she works with are tasked with acting as intermediaries between the police and community members when a crime occurs that appears to be racially or culturally motivated.

In this second installment, there are two seemingly unconnected deaths, but both involve dead racialized young men and white police shooters. Inaya, her boss (who may be becoming a romantic interest) Waqas Seif, the amazing Areesha (a Black civil rights lawyer, who has become an ally to the team), and Cat and Jaime have their hands full trying to get past the desire of the police department to simply call the shootings justified, and move on. Inaya is also trying to work through her own trauma involving former co-workers, when one of them appears asking for her help. There are some unforeseen levels of connection in the cases and the depth of those is part of what makes this such a compelling read.

Inaya is a fully fleshed out, complex character. There is no "tokenism" in the writing here. The way in which the Muslim characters navigate the non-Muslim world is captured in small details, and it is beautiful, as is the diversity among the Muslim characters. If educators are looking for a diverse mystery for secondary readers, this one fits the bill.
A solid 4.5 stars from me. I didn't figure it all out until the end.

Thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur books for the digital review copy.

This is the second book in the Blackwater Falls series, and while I have not read the first I really liked this one and did not feel I had missed anything (other than a good book). I enjoyed the case as well as the dynamic between the characters, which were very well developed and the pacing was also steady and on point. The case was interesting and I was vested in the characters, and overall really enjoyed this one and will definitely go back and read the first in this series. The audio for this was excellent as well, and I loved reading it via this medium.

Thank you to Minotaur Books and PRH Audio for the copies to review.

Blood Betrayal is the second in this author’s Blackwater Falls series. I loved the first book and very much enjoyed this new book as well. The stories that Khan tells are not light but they are relevant, significant and compelling.

Readers of the first book will welcome back Inaya, Saif, Cat, Areesha and many others. They represent the forces of law that try their best in difficult situations. In addition, they have relationships with one another that draw the reader in. (Note that this book can be read without having started at the beginning of the series but readers may want to go back to that first novel if they enjoy this one.)

This book tells the story of two fatal shootings; each was of a non-white victim and each reportedly shot by a police officer. The grief of the affected families is raw and present. One of those whose son is accused of being the shooter is an old adversary of Inaya; how will she choose to deal with this? Are the two cases linked? What will happen as they are solved? Read this book to find out.

I am already looking forward to the author’s next book. I want to know more about the stories of these people.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press-Minotaur Books for this title. All opinions are my own.

I have been a fan of Ausma Zehanat Khan's work for many years, she is an auto-buy author for me, and I've read all of her books. I love that her novels have a social justice/humanitarian focus. They challenge readers to look at the world around them with understanding and compassion, and they always make me want to be a better advocate.

That said, Blood Betrayal was disappointing. I could have more easily believed it was a debut rather than the second book in a third series. Khan throws so many issues into this plot - violence against the LGBTQ+, Latinx, and Black communities, police brutality, homophobia, racism, the fallout from the war in Afghanistan, and Palestine, as well as Islamaphobia and violence against women - that none of them gets the attention they deserve.

Khan typically writes her diverse female characters with great strength and integrity. While the three main female characters in this series are all complex, passionate, and committed women, they all also have moments where they bend to various men. It's like they are completely different women. I find those moments of dissonance distracting.

I love that Khan doesn't shy away from hard topics and that she treats them with compassion. Blood Betrayal just needed a sharper focus. So much time, especially early on, was spent in the heads of the main characters and on matters not related to the crimes being investigated, that I was hard pressed to keep reading. I have never wanted to bail on one of Khan's novels before and I had to force myself to finish. I had to switch to audiobook so I could do other things at the same time, just to make it through.

Blood Betrayal by Ausma Zehanat Khan is a police procedural taking place in Denver, but it is different than most in that the focus is on a community policing unit who works closely with community advocates to de-escalate before situations go bad. Several of these characters are Muslim, some devout some not. It is an eye-opening look at life from a minority perspective and revolves around two police-involved shootings that took place on the same night but were unrelated. Mateo Ruiz was shot in the back as he was running from the scene of a drug bust. Whether he was involved with that was uncertain at the outset. Duante Young was also shot as he was running from the scene. From all that could be gleaned, these were both upstanding young men who had bright futures and were not involved with crime at all. But, the public tends to jump to conclusions and in their perspective, this must be stopped before it got started.

The characters were numerous but one of the leads was a young woman named Inaya Rahman, who had transferred from Chicago after being an accuser in a police corruption case and been severely beaten for it. The father of the young officer, one of the men involved in the beating, had come to her for help proving his son innocent. In exchange he would give her the video of the man who had shot a black teen, admitting his guilt. She wanted to believe him. Her boss, Qas Seif, did not and he didn’t want to to put her in danger by involving herself in this crime. There is so much more, I can’t begin to summarize. It was an engaging book with much focus on the victims, as well as the motives, which would never have been discovered if not for the deep dives this team took and intuition which was spot on. There were plenty of human interactions and human relationships involved as well as police work. Sometimes the police work was complicated by these relationships. It was a moving book which changed my perspective on things I see on television news.

I was invited to read a free e-ARC of Blood Betrayal by St Martin’s Press Minotaur, through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #Netgalley #StMartinsPressMinotaur #AusmaZehanatKhan #BloodBetrayal

Book Review: Blood Betrayal, Blackwater Falls #2 by Ausma Zehanat Khan
Published by St. Martin's Press & Minotaur Books, November 7, 2023

★★★★☆ (4.0 Stars!)
Mixed!

I got drawn into the author's writing after reading her debut novel, "The Unquiet Dead", Detective Rachel Getty & mentor Esa Khattak #1 (2015), based on her dissertation on the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

I was mesmerized. Such power, such depth. A well-written, well-researched haunting tale spanning continents. A dreadful era quietly left buried, yet embedded so painfully, piercingly, tearing at the hearts and souls of the protagonists. This is one of those few books that linger on in our minds after we've turned that last page.

// Blood Betrayal, Blackwater Falls #2 by Ausma Zehanat Khan //

I read both "Blackwater Falls" Books 1 and 2, set in an idyllic fictional town in the Rockies near Denver.

Ausma Zehanat Khan presents her collective "alter-ego" strong female protagonists, all of whom have decidedly privileged upper-class if not well-to-do backgrounds. Detective Inaya Rahman, defense attorney Areesha Adams and Detective Catalina Hernandez, all immigrant Americans and advocates for immigrant rights and underserved, vulnerable groups, as they investigate the deaths of a young Latino musician, and a street artist of Middle-Eastern descent.

Miss Khan conveniently carves out a fictional police "Community Response Unit" manned by cops with "ethnic" backgrounds.

Then the narrative goes awry, sadly cliqued and over-the-top!

It's "us" against "them". There suddenly is a dearth of good "white folks" in Ausma Zehanat Khan's imaginary world, as she goes full bore far left activist!

A "racist", corrupt white sheriff, with "white supremacist" motorcycle gangs as enforcers. Defund the police. Even a Christian Evangelical church is somehow the villain. Advocacy for "Black Lives Matter", with an enormous BLM tent covering the entire Middle East including Aryan whites and the Hispanic world. Notwithstanding corruption at the BLM top with million-dollar homes.

Immigrant rights, quite moot in this present day with open borders and millions of illegal aliens overrunning "Blackwater Falls" and the country over the last two years, more than the populations of 41 states.

And, finally, in an incredible willful suspension of disbelief, the author carries on about revenge killings for events at an Afghanistan FOB (forward operating base) in this book published in November 2023.

Turning a blind eye to stark reality, even as Detective Inaya Rahman and the Rahman family lament the loss of their beautiful, beloved motherland to the Taliban in that disgraceful fall of Afghanistan in August of 2021, a fact conspicuously omitted in the book.

Even Evita cried for Argentina!

I can see exactly at which point this fine author would start to lose her readers, including this reviewer.

Review based on an advanced reading copy courtesy of St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books, and NetGalley.

Detective Iyana Rahman left Chicago and it’s demons behind to do good in Denver with the Community Response Unit. Little did she know that those demons would come following after two young men are shot and killed in separate incidents the same evening. Iyana and her team of investigators are tasked with determining the bigger picture behind the shootings of the minorities as the facts are a little too on point to be trusted. Is there something bigger going on in the Denver community?

The novel does a really nice job of leading you through an investigation, both turning up fruitful leads as well as getting stuck and sidetracked on others. It also balances the personal lives and personalities of the detectives as they juggle the cases with their everyday lives. This leads to some great character building and added depth to the novel. There are a few spots where it felt like pacing was being side tracked but overall good flow and story development. A great read that I enjoyed and recommend. 4 stars.

Review based on a digital Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books and NetGalley. Thank you!

Khan’s second book in The Blackwater Falls series might be a bit overly ambitious as she tackles not one, but two shootings by police on the same night. The cases were good, but the story was slow going (almost tedious) at times. Once again Khan covers some tough and complex subjects, and does it well. Her cast of characters are well developing ped, but with so many and skipping from one case to the next the story could get confusing at times, especially on audio. The first book of the series was a stronger read in my opinion, but this book is a good follow up. While I didn’t enjoy it as much as Blackwater Falls, I look forward to reading more of this series.Thank you to Minotaur Books, RB Media and NetGalley for an ARC and ALC of this book.

TL;DR

Blood Betrayal by Ausma Zehanat Khan is an excellent police procedural that tackles difficult topics of race, policing, assimilation, the cost of a life in law enforcement, and migrant assimilation. It’s a beautiful book. Highly recommended.

Disclaimer: The publisher provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Any and all opinions that follow are mine alone.

Review: Blood Betrayal by Ausma Zehanat Khan

Fiction allows readers to get inside the lives of other people. It allows us to practice empathy because we can learn about experiences that we’ll never have. For example, I, a white male, will never be harassed by the police in the way that a black man will be. I, an engineer, will never have to determine in split seconds whether the thing in someone’s hand is a weapon meant to kill me like a cop may. Hopefully. I, a white male, will not be harassed in the U.S. for my religion unlike a Muslim will be. In fiction, I can vicariously experience all those things. In Blood Betrayal by Ausma Zehanat Khan, readers can experience all that through the lens of empathy, compassion, and nuance that Ms. Khan shines upon these subjects. This book deals with the complex issues of policing and race with generosity to all sides, and it packs a fantastic story as well.

Inaya Rahman is a Muslim woman working for the Community Response Unit (CRU) of the Denver Police Department. Her job seems to be to investigate police interactions with minority communities. At the start of Blood Betrayal, there are two fatal intersections between the police and minority communities. Harry Cooper, the least likely cop to be involved in a shooting, shoots and kills an unarmed black man. The CRU is called into investigate, despite the fact that all evidence shows the officer did everything he could to warn off the young man. Still, CRU has to investigate to make sure that everything is as it seems. Because Cooper works for the police department in Blackwater Falls, which is run by a corrupt chief. In the nearby town of Denver, a Drug Task Force raid ended up with the death of a young Latine man, who was shot in the back. The officer suspected of the shooting is not talking to anyone, and that officer is the son of the police officer who led a group of men to severely beat Inaya Rahman when she worked in Chicago. Inaya is approached by the suspect’s father, her abuser, to clear his son. If she does look into the shooting, he’ll give her a recording of another Chicago cop admitting to a heinous crime. One that Inaya had been investigating before she was beaten and driven from Chicago. Inaya and the CRU have to investigate these crimes under the suspicion of their fellow police and various minority communities at large while at the same time navigating the political fallout, protests, and further escalation by the police.

Blood Betrayal by Ausma Zehanat Khan is a third person point of view novel, in which each member of the CRU gets a chance to be the point of view character. This novel moves quickly and is packed with examinations of politically charged topics. Khan manages to balance the larger question of policing and minorities with a look at the effects on individuals.

Inaya Rahman

Inaya Rahman is a wonderful character. Readers are quickly introduced to the horrors she experienced as part of the Chicago Police Department and the scars she gained. Despite facing the man who beat her viciously, Inaya shows an inner strength. Her need to help a family in Chicago means that she takes up her abuser’s task. His quid pro quo agreement provides her with evidence for an investigation she conducted in Chicago. With this evidence, she could put in jail a violent cop who should not be on the streets. On a psychological level, would her solving the case give meaning to the awful thing that happened to her? Maybe.

Inaya is a sharp detective, and she has that necessary skill to make great detectives, doggedness. She isn’t easily deterred. Is it curiosity or stubbornness? In the end, it doesn’t matter because she gets results. At the same time, Khan shows that she is flawed, is capable of making mistakes.

Inaya’s thoughts about religion and the effect of having her headscarf torn off were wonderful. U.S. media doesn’t handle religion in any form well. This is where fiction and books shine. Readers get to experience, vicariously, a religion that is too often caricatured by U.S. media. Too often, the headscarf is discussed with a view from the outside. For some, it represents oppression. But the wearer’s opinion is overlooked if it is even reported. Khan including Inaya’s intimate thoughts about what the headscarf means to her is fantastic. It was complicated yet beautiful and, ultimately, wonderfully human.

Race and Policing

In the U.S., there are fewer topics more explosive than the intersection of policing and race. It’s a topic along which clear lines get drawn adding to the further divisions in American politics. It is a topic that both sides oversimplify to fit their preferred narrative. In Blood Betrayal, Khan dives into the complications. And the scenarios that she has in this book are extremely complicated, if unbalanced. After all, the cops get to live; the minorities…not so much.

The job of policing the community is an impossible one. Cops are human; humans are fallible creatures; thus, mistakes are inevitable. Unfortunately, when the police make mistakes, lives are ruined. Because they are agents of state violence, cops should be under intense scrutiny. But cops, like every other American, are spoiled children who don’t want to be second guessed. Cops believe they should be able to harm and even kill civilians without consequences, especially when those civilians are people of color. Now, they will say my statement isn’t true; yet watch how police react when another cop anywhere in the nation shoots an unarmed suspect. Their reaction is completely different than if it a civilian shoots anyone. The same people who were cautioning us to wait until all the evidence was presented after Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd were chanting “Lock her up. Lock her up.” at Hillary. In Blood Betrayal, Khan shows what a minimal amount of scrutiny looks like and how childishly the police react to it. They close ranks and assume an us against them footing that places the police at war against their fellow citizens.

The job of policing is an impossible one, and cops should be and are given protection from actions that would be considered a crime if committed by civilians. The job itself chips away at a person’s humanity, and officers involved in shootings pay heavy psychological burdens unless they’re psychopaths. Officers, correctly, believe that their jobs are fraught with danger and, incorrectly, believe the media is their enemy. (In fact, the media uncritically reprints police department statements without fact checking them.) Civilians, correctly, believe that officers view them as the enemy and, incorrectly, believe officers consciously target minorities. It’s been shown that in the U.S., at least, people are unconsciously biased to see black men as more violent. In American, to be black is to be a criminal. This is a population problem, and since police come from the U.S. population, it is also a police problem. At the same time, civilians use the police as an extension of their own racism. This puts officers in the unfortunate position of being a tool of racism against their own will. It’s easy to see how the police come to believe it’s an us versus them situation. Khan uses Harry Cooper to depict this. He was well liked by his fellow cops and his community. He’s a cop who never wanted and had to use his weapon in a long career. Yet, he caused one death. It weighs on him; it has been a nightmare for him.

When officers shoot minorities, the incident becomes a cause. The families and officers involved quickly lose control of the situation, and they become faces of “causes”. The human tolls on everybody are lost as the incident is escalated into a cause. Khan captures that here brilliantly, and her characters are focused on keeping the incident at a human level. She shows how it becomes a cause without losing site of the people at the center of it. Khan’s writing is nuanced and wonderful.

Conclusion

Ausma Zehanat Khan’s Blood Betrayal is the wonderful second addition in her Detetive Inaya Rahman series. It’s a police procedural that is nuanced, complex with no easy answers. It’s a stark look at race and policing from both in and outside the Denver Police Department. Blood Betrayal is compelling, engaging, and ends entirely too soon. I wasn’t ready to leave Blackwater Falls, CO, and I look forward to my next visit.

Highly recommended.

Very interesting read.

Setting is in Denver CO, where Detective Inaya Rahman from the Community Response Unit which investigates any police involved in shootings was contacted by John Broda to help clear his sons name. Interesting history here as John was part of a police unit that harassed Inaya because she was Muslim.

This book contained racial bias among the police department as 2 young men were shot by the police, one being black the other being Latine, where both young men were unarmed, and John Broda's son Kelly was an officer involved.

This is the second in a series but also a standalone read.

Pretty good read and I would recommend this book to anyone that loves a police mystery.

Thank you NetGalley for the digital copy in exchange for my honest opinions.



.

I completely devoured this book. I had my head buried and only came up for meals. It is an all-consuming, and just as riveting as the first book in this series. I love the way Ausma Zehanat Khan sets the scene. You can imagine yourself there. Feel the pain, the intense fear, and anxiety that is flowing through the air. Khan picks back up with the shootings of two men of minority. One in Blackwater Falls and the other in Denver. Both of the men are assumed to have been shot by the police. Inaya's worst nightmare shows up on her doorstep for help. The man who viciously attacked her and made her question her religion and how to present herself to the world. In a twist he is asking for her help, should she let her guard down and trust him?

There are so many twists and turns and threads that are connected. It had my head spinning trying to unravel the mysteries. Nothing should be assumed about the nature of any event. People do things for the most random and insane reasons. I love the way Khan brings in events about race, culture, and religion to the forefront of her books. It made me sit up and take notice. To have to think about the fear that people go through. That my husband has gone through. Thank you to Ausma Zehanat Khan and Minotaur Books for my copy of this fantastic high octane read.

I was so thrilled to start BB and Ausma did not disappoint!
Blood Betrayal is book two in the Blackwater Falls series by Ausma Zehanat Khan.
I enjoyed Blackwater Falls. So getting the chance to read her newest title was very exciting.
Detective Inaya Rahman is a very likable character.
She is strong and her personality just seeps off the pages.
I loved her background being an American-Muslim it really added a whole perspective through my eyes. Very different and so enjoyable.
Reading a police procedural with different settings and diverse characters was a great experience. It’s always nice to read different stories and Ausma really did a fantastic job here creating such vivid images with detailed descriptions and amazing characterization. The mystery was well constructed and the characters were well developed. I came away wanting to know more about Inaya, her family and her background.
A super enjoyable, interesting and thrilling crime series.
I hope to see more of Inaya in the future.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley and Minotaur Books for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Khan writes books that hit on hot topics in America. Her books are engrossing and makes me think about race issues. Two boys, a Latino and a African American, are shot one night at two different locations by the police. Inaya and the Community Response Unit are called in to investigate the African American case. She is soon asked by a past Chicago policeman to investigate the Latino killing. She works her boss where she can.

This is the second book in the Detective Inaya Rahman series. There was great character development from Blackwater Falls to this new book. The series take a look at faith, prejudice and fear. I think it's fear of the unknown that we actually fear and not the color of someones skin or their religion. Her books make you really think about the other cultures in our country and the world.

Tentative Publishing Date November 7, 2023

Thanks to Netgalley, St. Martin's Press and Minotaur Books for the E-ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

🙂 Happy Reading 🙂

#netgalley
#bloodbetrayal
#ausmazehanatkhan
#detectiveinayarahman
#serieslove2023

Ausma Zehanat Khan's second police procedural that features Det. Inaya Rahman, a Muslim, and her Community Response Unit, headed by Lieutenant Waqas Seif, that handles cases involving police accountability and vulnerable populations, is an excellent followup to last year's Blackwater Falls.

A young Black graffiti artist is shot by a police officer. Duante Young, a 20-year-old, held a spray paint can and Harry Cooper mistook it for a gun. In another incident that same night a young Hispanic man named Mateo Ruiz is fatally shot during a drug raid in nearby Denver.  Kelly Broda is the officer involved in that shooting, his father, John, was an officer who was part of an attack on Inaya when she worked in Chicago. ( She was targeted for wearing a Hijab and being a Muslim woman). He now wants her help to clear his son. Both officers involved are white which further bring the spotlight on what many in the community view as racist police actions.

This is a well written mystery that deals with issues being faced by police and communities today. The characters are portrayed as believable. The story moves along at a quick pace. Inaya works with activist attorney Areesha Adams, and criminal psychologist Catalina Hernandez to get to the resolution. As they delve into the lives of those involved secrets are revealed and tensions escalate. I look forward to seeing more of Inaya.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, St Martin's Press, for an ARC. The review is my own.

This review was originally posted on Books of My Heart


Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I continued in the Blackwater Falls series. The town of that name is a smaller community not far from Denver. It seems to be a real melting pot with Mexicans (Catholics), black refugees from Somalia, and Muslims from several Middle Eastern and Asian locations.

The focus centers around the team of Community Response officers who work with the Sheriff, Denver police, FBI and other law enforcement. Their cases revolve around the different cultures and the sensitive issues in dealing with them. The team is not a fan of the Sheriff.

I am not knowledgeable about all these religions and cultures so I find those aspects interesting. The main character Inaya is a police officer who lives with her Muslim family who came from Afghanistan. The other members of the team come from many of the other cultures. The team has become close knit as they deal with bad situations.

There are two cases of officer involved shootings. The emotional powder keg of law enforcement and the communities of those killed requires the unit to have a cool head and dig for actual facts. There were instances of racial, cultural and religion bias or hate, along with misogyny. Inaya works with the team, and tries to help the various families in the community while solving the murders.

There are political and religious harassments, as well as police corruption making it all more difficult. Inaya works hard and with compassion for the victims and families. The cases get solved and the obvious solutions are not the answers. The realities of why the killings happened are much more complex. Blood Betrayal is another intriguing look at the different cultural and family interactions.