A Murder in Multan

A Murder in Multan

Author's Notes

Partly based on my experiences of visiting Pakistan after many years, the story idea came to me about ten years ago. The idea was always about an honour killing with a hidden motive and our hero blundering his way through it; solving the crime but becoming obsessed with the secret.

Initially all set during one vacation I decided to stretch the timeline both forwards and backwards, however it took time to develop a consistent coherent structure. To compress the events into a short few days but to move forward in ten year jumps whilst going deeper into the background.

The story explores ideas of fluid identity based on culture and religion and what it means in the modern world.

A Murder in Multan
Cover by Ash Collins

"Not all truths set you free."

Published 11th August 2018 on Amazon Kindle Digital Services.
Available for purchase from UK       and US
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Read an extract before you buy.

An ex-pat forensics scientist, Dr Shujaat Khan, visits Pakistan after many years to attend a family wedding and becomes unwittingly embroiled in an honour killing. Complications arise when he pursues the enticing Henna and a clandestine romance develops which is strictly prohibited by a bitter family feud.
He learns the honour killing is a merely pretence, for the murder hides a dark secret which must be maintained at all costs. When Henna becomes implicated in the killing Shujaat's loyalties are torn between his love for her and his fiancee.
He pursues an obsessive quest over decades to unravel a secret which could destroy a community.

A migrant's compelling search for identity in rootless times.

A Murder in Multan
Drawing by Eqbal Mehdi