Utube Inspector Mislan and the emancipatist conspiracy

Noor, a former criminal investigator and prosecutor, digs into Kuala Lumpur's gritty underworld and elite enclaves, weaving in an experienced take on departmental politics and procedures. In his third outing, following Duke (2021), accomplished but loose-cannon Inspector Mislan is forced to take second seat in a serial-rape investigation that begins with the case of a female executive's attack, filmed and posted on UTube by a user signed on as The Emancipatist. When the rapists murder a second victim's roommate, the brass attempts to appease the public with a task force led by straight-arrow Inspector Sherry. Political and public pressures ramp up when the team determines that the rapists work in highly coordinated rotating teams; Mislan suspects that a subculture of people who believe that LGBTQ+ women can be "cured" through rape is also involved. Mislan's investigations will transport American readers to a distant city made familiar by human connections and misdeeds. A timely, nuanced portrayal of LGBTQ+ issues, Noor's latest is highly recommended for fans of John Burdett's Sonchai Jitpleecheep procedurals.

A rape case drives Noor's excellent third Malaysian procedural starring Insp. Mislan Latif of Kuala Lumpur's Special Investigation Unit (after DUKE: Inspector Mislan and the Expressway Murders). The victim, marketing v-p Era Amilia Zabidin, was sexually assaulted in her apartment by two masked men, one of whom videotaped the crime. After a video of her degradation is posted on UTube, Zabidin jumps to her death from her balcony to avoid further humiliation. Zabidin's parents want the men responsible charged with murder. Meanwhile, Mislan gets a traditional homicide to probe after a second young woman, banker Julie Maulana, is raped in the same way, and her roommate's throat is slit. The assailants left no forensic clues, and Mislan's search for them is complicated by an adversarial supervisor's interference. Noor, himself a veteran of the Malaysian police force, makes the plot twists plausible and his characters true to life. This gritty series merits a long run. (July)