The star of the book is its hotch-potch collection of characters that could only be put together in somewhere such as Kabul, a City suffering corruption following years of war and internal conflict.
Mac, the disgraced British Police Officer and his colleague Ginger, a former Para both now working for a private company training local Police Officers.
Major Jananga, an uncorrupted Police Officer who wants to stick to the rules, but those rules include torture and killing.
Baz Khan, and American journalist who is trying to expose a gang smuggling artefacts out of Afghanistan.
When a British soldier is murdered Jananga enlists Mac to help with is investigation.
Meanwhile Baz Khan is on the tail of the smugglers but doesn’t realise how much danger her journalistic enquiries are putting her in.
Gradually both investigations start to point towards a drinking den. The Lucky Star is a drinking den, gambling den, and brothel that could only exist so openly in a city like Kabul.
What a story. It would be wrong to say Kabul is portrayed as lawless, but it is portrayed as being under the Laws of whoever wants to make them up at the time.
There are moralistic angles incorporated into the plot that adds a different twist to a crime mystery set in Europe or America can realistically offer.
It’s also another of those books that had me hitting Google on numerous occasions. I love learning new things and this book certainly gave me the opportunity to do that.
A great read and one that is firmly on my Recommended List
Publisher: Canelo Action. Print Length: 413 Pages. Available now
nigeladamsbookworm 