I will no doubt be in the minority on this book.

I wanted to enjoy it: set in Afghanistan in the 1970s, with the opium becoming one of the defining symbols of the country, Russia attempting to take the country, the US creating and arming the Taliban as an answer, and within all this turmoil, David Sajedi, half American and half Afghani, working for an American agency attempting to destroy the opium trade by taking out poppy fields, hits and kills a young girl while driving.

What is not to like? This: the book could not determine what it wanted to be. This will no doubt draw comments about how many books don’t fit into a single category, and it’s x of me to try to apply labels. Yes, some books defy categorization. In order to do this, though, they must be consistent, and they must be well written throughout. Characters are introduced and that appear to be playing a part in this book in some important way are never heard from or about) again. Thee are some pacing issues as well. The shifts in writing range from soaring language that is almost poetic to basic noun-verb-period. There are also some weird references to other books as we slog to the end that make no sense at all.

The premise is good. the story should be good, placed against that background. I just didn’t really like the execution. Sorry, not for me.

Two out of five stars.

Thanks to Soho Press/Soho Crime and NetGalley for the reading copy.