Soho
Published June 10, 2025
Reviewed by Barbara Fister
Sergeant Akal Singh, a Sikh policeman assigned to Fiji in 1915, is back after 2023’s series debut, A Disappearance in Fiji. Still assigned to the sleepy capital city of Suva, he’s amused when wet-behind-the-ears Constable Kumar reports from Levuka Station that rumors are flying about Germans approaching shopkeepers at the remote outpost. This seems highly unlikely, as Germans at war with the British in Europe would have little interest in such a minor colony on the other side of the world. But when his unpleasant English boss assigns him to escort the sister and niece of the local newspaper editor to Levuka, he also orders him to look for suspicious Germans – an insultingly pointless wild goose chase.
This all seems like a waste of time, but once Akal sets out with his trusted Fijian friend and colleague Taviti, he’s goaded by the extremely attractive niece, Katherine, who wants to become a reporter, to take her with him as he looks for German spies. Of course, that’s impossible: It would be against the social code for a young Englishwoman to spend time in the company of an Indian (as Akal knows all too well from his own scandalous past). She’s bitterly disappointed and pouts, but Akal is glad she’s not with them when he goes to interview the shopkeeper who first raised the alarm and find the shop has been ransacked and its owner has been murdered.