Ali Karim was a Board Member of Bouchercon [The World Crime & Mystery Convention] and co-chaired programming for Bouchercon Raleigh, North Carolina in 2015. He is Assistant Editor of Shots eZine, British correspondent for The Rap Sheet and writes and reviews for many US magazines & Ezines.
This sophomore work was awarded the 2023 Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America, and despite the array of excellent work on the shortlist, it was of little surprise that it was selected to sit at the top of the pile. We’d urge you to seek out this novel, because it is so very special.
The best crime novels engage deep-thought because they mirror the yin and yang of the human condition - displaying the very worst but also the very best aspects of our existence.
Kukafka’s novel is structured like a prism. It has shifting time lines; it offers multiple viewpoints diffracting the serial killer motif spatially into chucks of narrative.
There’s Ansel Packer, a murderer awaiting the needle on death row. As Packer approaches what is either the death penalty for the strangulation of three innocent young women – or – a prison break; the reader becomes immersed in the past. There is an uneasy sympathy, straited with a sense of dread within the proceedings.
There is the police, with the vibrantly realised Saffron [aka ‘Saffy’] Singh brushing off a dusty past with a goal of resolving the future by her actions and belief.
There’s masculinity on display that’s latent, waiting to evolve into something that could become unspeakably toxic. Circumstance and the choices that determine ‘who we become’ are explored in a dispassionate manner.
There are good people but also the bad – perhaps the forks and bumps in the road can affect the direction of travel.
The universe of possibilities unravel as paths are taken by Saffy, the protagonist as well as Ansel, the antagonist – but both have to traverse time, territories, families, colleagues and their friends - as well as delving into their own inner motivations, and the demons that hover as the pages turn.
It's a most unusual novel, one that had me enraptured for a day, but a narrative that will stay with me for a long time. It’s so gripping, so thought-provoking - I could think of little else as I became lost in its dark beauty.
Now in paperback – it’s unmissable.
