art by ash collins
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.
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.
