Rachel Getty and Esa Khattak

6 primary works • 7 total works

The Unquiet Dead

by Ausma Zehanat Khan

Published 13 January 2015

Detective Esa Khattak is in the midst of his evening prayers when he receives a phone call asking that he and his partner, Detective Rachel Getty, look into the death of a local man who has fallen off a cliff. At first Christopher Drayton's death - which looks like an accident - doesn't seem to warrant a police investigation, especially not from Khattak and Rachel's team, which handles minority-sensitive cases. But it soon comes to light that Drayton might have been living under an assumed name, and he may not have been the upstanding Canadian citizen he appeared to be. In fact, he may have been a Bosnian war criminal with ties to the Srebrenica massacre of 1995. And if that's true, any number of people could have had reason to help him to his death. As Rachel and Khattak dig deeper into the life and death of Christopher Drayton, every question seems to lead only to more questions, and there are no easy answers. Did the specters of Srebrenica return to haunt Drayton at last, or had he been keeping secrets of an entirely different nature? Or, after all, did a man just fall to his death in a tragic accident?
In her spellbinding debut, Ausma Zehanat Khan has written a complex and provocative story of loss, redemption, and the cost of justice that will linger with readers long after turning the final page.

The Language of Secrets

by Ausma Zehanat Khan

Published 2 February 2016

"Detective Esa Khattak heads up Canada's Community Policing Section, which handles minority-sensitive cases across all levels of law enforcement. Khattak is still under scrutiny for his last case, so he's surprised when INSET, Canada's federal intelligence agency, calls him in on another potentially hot button issue. For months, INSET has been investigating a local terrorist cell which is planning an attack on New Year's Day. INSET had an informant, Mohsin Dar, undercover inside the cell. But now, just weeks before the attack, Mohsin has been murdered at the group's training camp deep in the woods. INSET wants Khattak to give the appearance of investigating Mohsin's death, and then to bury the lead. They can't risk exposing their operation, or Mohsin's role in it. But Khattak used to know Mohsin, and he knows he can't just let this murder slide. So Khattak sends his partner, Detective Rachel Getty, undercover into the small-town mosque which houses the terrorist cell. As Rachel tentatively reaches out into the unfamiliar world of Islam, and begins developing relationships with the people of the mosque and the terrorist cell within it, the potential reasons for Mohsin's murder only seem to multiply, from the political and ideological to the intensely personal. The Unquiet Dead author Ausma Zehanat Khan once again dazzles with a brilliant mystery carefully woven into a profound and intimate story of humanity"--

Among the Ruins

by Ausma Zehanat Khan

Published 14 February 2017

On leave from Canada's Community Policing department, Esa Khattak is traveling in Iran, reconnecting with his cultural heritage and seeking peace in the country's beautiful mosques and gardens. But Khattak's break is cut short when he's approached by a Canadian government agent in Iran, asking him to look into the death of Canadian-lranian filmmaker Zahra Sobhani. Zahra was murdered at Iran's notorious Evin prison, where she'd been seeking the release of a political prisoner. Khattak quickly finds himself embroiled in Iran's tumultuous politics and under surveillance by the regime, but when the trail leads to Zahra's family in Canada, Khattak calls on his partner, Detective Rachel Getty, for help. Rachel uncovers a conspiracy linked to the Shah of Iran and the decades-old murders of a group of Iran's most famous dissidents. Historic letters, a connection to the Royal Ontario Museum, and a smuggling operation on the Caspian Sea are just some of the threads Rachel and Khattak begin unraveling, while the list of suspects stretches from Tehran to Toronto.
As Khattak gets caught up in the fate of Iran's political prisoners, Rachel sees through to the heart of the matter: Zahra's murder may not have been political at all. From the critically acclaimed author of The Unquiet Dead comes another powerful novel exploring the interplay of politics and religion, and the intensely personal ripple effects of one woman's murder.

No Place of Refuge

by Ausma Zehanat Khan

Published 1 January 2019

Amid a global crisis, one woman searches for justice...

The Syrian refugee crisis becomes personal for Inspector Esa Khattak and Sergeant Rachel Getty.

NGO worker Audrey Clare, sister of Khattak's childhood friend, is missing. In her wake, a French Interpol Agent and a young Syrian man are found dead at the Greek refugee camp where she worked. Khattak and Getty travel to Greece to trace Audrey's last movements in a desperate attempt to find her. In doing so, they learn that her work in Greece had strayed well beyond the remit of her NGO...

Had Audrey been on the edge of exposing a dangerous secret at the heart of the refugee crisis - one that ultimately put a target on her own back?

No Place of Refuge is a highly topical, moving mystery in which Khan sensitively exposes the very worst and best of humanity. Fans of the series will love this latest instalment.

A Dangerous Crossing

by Ausma Zehanat Khan

Published 13 February 2018

In the next book in Ausma Khan's powerful, critically acclaimed series, Muslim detective Esa Khattak and his partner, Rachel Getty, travel across Europe in search of an old friend, who's gone missing while working to help expedite immigration for Syrian refugees in Greece. The Syrian refugee crisis becomes personal for Inspector Esa Khattak and Sergeant Rachel Getty when they are called in to search for a missing Canadian volunteer. Nathan Clare's sister, Audrey, has vanished from the Greek islands, where she was working to fast-track refugees to Canada. What's more, she's implicated in the double murder of a French Interpol agent and a young man who'd fled to Greece from the devastated city of Aleppo. Esa and Rachel stand in for their government as they follow a trail that takes them from Greece to the Turkish-Syrian border, to England, Holland and France. Did Audrey Clare get in over her head? Or did she discover something about the dangers of the refugee route that put a target on her back? Working against time, with Interpol at their backs, Esa and Rachel must find Audrey Clare and uncover the truth about the double murder.

A Deadly Divide

by Ausma Zehanat Khan

Published 12 February 2019

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.

A Death in Sarajevo

by Ausma Zehanat Khan

Published 17 January 2017