Description
Winner of the Leapfrog Global Fiction Prize
"Move over Walt Longmire. Make room for Franz Kafka, aka 'K.' Expertly plotted, beautifully written, eloquent, colloquial, wry, insightful . . . Medhat demonstrates a keen sense of place and Navajo culture and history, with superior attention to language; smart, witty, often humorous and always precise analogies, metaphors, and similes. A sharp eye for detail and sprachgefühl for putting observations into words. Style, grace, a confident, compelling, and controlled narrative voice. The sophisticated narration dances from omniscient to close-third without any false steps or trips. A very smooth operator, this writer. The characters glide off the page. This book is a high-wire act, and the author shines a bright, steady beam on the dark stage where clashing cultures meet."--Sara Pritchard, author of Crackpots
Quixotic cop Franz Kafka's small-town routine is disrupted by a mysterious death at Chimney Rock. Navajo cop Robbie Begay joins the murder investigation, which leads the mismatched duo across the reservation into the victim's fraught past, to associates living under the shadow of heinous crimes, cunningly camouflaged meth-merchants, and sweet-natured squash-growers. The killer, it turns out, is much closer to home.
Katayoun Medhat was raised in Iran and Germany and studied anthropology in Berlin and London. Before training as an intercultural therapist, she worked in an adolescent psychiatric unit, which taught her much about human resilience. For her PhD in medical anthropology, she researched mental health and alcohol rehab services on the Navajo Nation, and along the way learned to appreciate the healing power of humor as life force.
Reviews
"Tony Hillerman fans will welcome Medhat's excellent debut and series launch, a refreshing take on Navajo country's crime, culture, and history. After the discovery of a man's body carefully laid out near Chimney Rock, white policeman Franz Kafka (aka K), who has settled in fictional Milagro, San Matteo County ("one of the few places left in the Western hemisphere--and possibly the Eastern too--where his name rings no bells"), teams with Robbie Begay, a tracker with the Redwater Navajo Tribal Police. At the crime scene, Begay makes a number of impressive deductions from shoe and tire marks. Dental records identify the victim as 28-year-old Noah George, a member of a Navajo family known for its bad luck. As they investigate Noah's troubled past, Begay and K swap stories, insights, and insults that brilliantly illuminate the daily obstacles that Native Americans encounter. Medhat, who holds a Ph.D. in medical anthropology, uses pathos and humor, tragedy and comedy, to spin an entertaining and original mystery. (Sept.)--Publishers Weekly starred review "Crimes, cops, and communities that don't respect each other's cultural differences--all sound current and familiar. In ... The Quality of Mercy, one police officer, an outsider to the Southwest, works to solve the murder of yet another young Navajo man as feelings of distrust mount among people who live together and need to depend on each other. In this fast-paced story, some people worry that nothing will change, and that one more person will get away with murder. For readers who don't know much about the Navajo, Medhat provides insight into their culture, past and present.... Like the rearview mirror on the cover reflecting a dark horizon, Medhat offers readers a chance to reflect on actions, inactions, and the lack of understanding and trust between the smaller cultural groups and the majority population.... More books featuring this winning character would be welcome." --Rain Taxi Review of Books
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