Author Talk: Ausma Zehanat Khan and Blackwater Falls

Join critically acclaimed author Ausma Zehanat Khan for a discussion of Blackwater Falls, the first in a timely and powerful new crime series introducing an unforgettable protagonist, Detective Inaya Rahman.

In the Colorado town of Blackwater Falls, girls from immigrant communities have been disappearing for months, but the local sheriff is slow to act and the fates of the missing girls largely disregarded. At last, the calls for justice become too loud to ignore when the body of a star student and refugee - the Syrian teenager Razan Elkader - is arranged in a crucifixion-like pose in a mosque. Detective Rahman and Lieutenant Waqas Seif of the Denver Police are recruited to solve Razan’s murder, and quickly uncover a link to other missing and murdered girls. Delving deep into racial tensions, and police corruption and violence, Blackwater Falls examines a series of crimes within the context of contemporary American politics with compassion and searing insight.

Ausma Zehanat Khan holds a Ph.D. in international human rights law with a specialization in military intervention and war crimes in the Balkans. She is the author of the Khattak/Getty crime series and the Khorasan Archives fantasy quartet. She is also a contributor to the anthologies Private Investigations, Sword Stone Table, and The Perfect Crime, and the former Editor-in-Chief of Muslim Girl magazine. A British-born Canadian and former adjunct law professor, Khan now lives in Colorado with her husband.