This award winning and thrilling crime fiction debut is firmly located in the Asian culture and community of Southall, often referred to as little India. The local conflicts centre around religious divisions and cultural traditions such as arranged marriages both of which feature. It is the story of Zaq, whose life and career has been stymied by a conviction for manslaughter for which he served a hard five year prison sentence. Despite being a graduate, the only job he has been able to secure is that of delivering building supplies for the Sikh Mr Brar. Mr Brar's daughter, Surinder, known as Rita, has run off with a Muslim man bringing shame and disgrace on the family. Mr Brar wants Zaq to find Rita and bring her home, and to ensure that he complies, he threatens Zaq with a return to prison. As a man with no options, Zaq finds himself on the reluctant path of learning how to become a private eye.

As with all good private detectives, Zaq finds himself on the end of a number of vicious beatings and assaults. He has to handle the thuggish sons of Mr Brar, Rajinder and Parminder, who keep an uncommonly close eye on Zaq, insisting that he gives any information he uncovers on Rita's whereabouts to them first. Aided by his close and trusty friend, Jags, Zaq finds that his nominally straightforward assignment of finding Rita turns into a much more dangerous and sinister case featuring ruthless criminals, murders and a murky web of deception where he will be lucky to come out alive. Furthermore, it seems there is another party from Zaq's past who won't stop until Zaq is dead. With his and Rita's life in danger, Zaq crafts an off the wall plan that just might ensure their survival.

The strengths of this novel are the insights it offers of Southall in all its colourful glory of food, clothes, characters, community, geography and language. The central character of Zaq, a man hobbled by an unfortunate past, exudes a mixture of charm, innocence and verve. Jags, his friend, is loyal, committed and challenges the notion that Sikhs and Muslims cannot be friends. Rita is a resourceful and dynamic woman that is not going to let anyone else define her future, and her friend, Nina, is of the same ilk. This is a well plotted novel with a cracking narrative full of suspense. It took me a little while to get into it, but once I was in, I was hooked. A beguiling read that captivates, and which I highly recommended to those who love crime fiction. Many thanks to Little, Brown for an ARC.

Brothers in Blood is the award winning debut by Amer Anwar and it is a fast paced thriller.

Ex con Zaq Khan is tasked by his boss to find his boss' missing daughter but that is just the start of Zaq's troubles.

As his search progresses there seems to be a number of people interested in him but who are they and why?

The author keeps the pace throughout the book although there is probably one too many fights if Zaq is that street wise but overall this is a very good debut novel.

Recommended

Wow! This was pretty much non stop action all the way! In it, we meet Zaq who is recently out of prison and working pretty much the only job he can get, as a driver for a building supply company owned by Mr Brar, a prominent Sikh businessman. Things are mostly ticking along as nicely as they can until, one day, he is called into Brar's office and given a different task. Brar's daughter Rita has run away. Not only that, she appears to have absconded with a Muslim boy. As you can imagine this is not good for the family as it brings shame upon them all in the community. Zaq's job is to find her and bring her home, something he really doesn't want to get involved with but Brar threatens him with a return to prison if he does not complete his task. Damned if you do... But as Zaq soon discovers when he starts his mission that other members of the Brar family have their own agendas for wanting Rita home and it isn't just to step up to her arranged marriage.
Ignoring for a moment the whole Sikh/Muslim undertones that weave themselves through pretty much every aspect of this book, this story held me completely enthralled throughout my time reading it. As already mentioned, it was pretty much action packed the entire way and I lost count of the number of times I held my breath in anticipation of the outcome. As the layers of what was really going on started to be peeled back and the truth became more evident, this turned the whole book on it's head from what I originally though it was going to be about; well, me and Zaq both to be honest. There's definitely a lot going on but it never seemed to be so busy that it overloaded itself.
Zaq, well, where do I start with him? He's one of those people that is definitely not the sum of his actions. He has been scuppered a tad by circumstance and misfortune but he is really trying to get himself back on track. Initially he was threatened with repercussions should he fail to return Rita to her family but, after he learned things, I fully believe that he would have stepped up and done the right thing irrespective at the end of the day. He has a good close friend in Jags who is pretty much his sidekick throughout; again scuppering the whole Sikh/Muslim divide.
I am not sure if this is true overall, it definitely is for me, but I seem to be seeing Asian based crime fiction books more prominently these days. I have certainly read my share of them in the last couple of years and I do find the background and culture to be fascinating. But, if I am honest, and I know that the whole point was probably to illustrate the character and background of the people Zaq worked with but the use of the native language did start to grate on me after a while. Not enough to mark the book down as it is obviously a personal choice. Yes, most of it was guessable or superfluous but it did break my concentration a bit along the way.
All in all, a captivating read that kept me guessing for the majority and entertained for the entirety. Will we be seeing Zaq again in future books, I really hope so; I kinda like him.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.