Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Trust me to arrive late to a series, and miss out on all of Esa and Rachel’s past history. Did it make a difference? In some respects yes, there seems to be quite a bit of past history between themselves and also other characters. What didn’t make a difference was the story, the events and the actions of the characters. It was powerful and moving and considering Khan’s background informative and eye opening.

The refugee crisis is one that is never far away from the headlines, their dangerous passage across seas in inadequate boats always horrific. You would expect the refugee camps they entered to offer safety, but what if they didn’t, what if they faced even more danger and trauma.

This was the tack Khan took as Esa and Rachel landed in Lesvos looking for their friend, Audrey. What they found opened not only their eyes but also mine.

Khan used fact, with some dramatic licence, to portray the true horror of the refugee camps, of the cramped sometimes unsanitary conditions. Yet that wasn’t the worst, as always seems to be the case it was us humans that posed the most risk. There were the smugglers who charged extortionate amounts of money to carry refugees across the water, the camp infiltrators who fought out young girls to traffick and exploit. It was not a comfortable read, nor was it comfortable for Esa and Rachel as they pursued those who might have been responsible for Audrey’s disappearance.

You could see them struggle as they tried to remain professional, tried to push their own emotional feelings to oneside. As they dug deeper, the depravity and horrors of a civil war in Syria and it’s devastating consequences rose to the surface in all its lurid colours.

The plot was complex, and multilayered as it slowly meandered to a dramatic conclusion with unexpected twists and turns.

It was a novel that didn’t flinch from the facts, that told a story with intelligence, thought and emotion.

If you haven’t read any of the series then I suggest you do.

When a Canadian NGO worker goes missing, suspected of murder, from a refugee camp on Lesvos, Community Policing detectives Esa Khattak and Rachel Getty are sent to investigate, and avert a diplomatic incident.

The murder mystery is really secondary to the plight of the refugees - we learn of the horrors they were facing in Syria, and the organised crime taking advantage of the most vulnerable as they try to flee. Khan is a former human rights lawyer, and her research cuts through the story without ever feeling forced.

Where the book falls down for me is in the personal relationships between the Canadian characters, which I didn’t always believe, either logistically (the missing woman is the sister of Esa’s best friend and Rachel’s some-time romantic interest) or emotionally, and found a little off-putting. I have come in at the 4th in the series, which no doubt contributed to the problem.

I will, however, be going back to read the other books in the series and would highly recommend the book.

Another bruising read from Khan who has made the contemporary political environment her own. I'd strongly recommend that her books are read in order as the complicated relationships between the protagonists are carried forward from their shared pasts and add nuance and developments that might be lost on new readers.

What really makes these books outstanding, though, is the way they engage humanely but boldly in our world today: here the plight of refugees, mostly from Syria, takes centre stage, a topic which has led to some of the most brutal and heartless commentary in the world's media and amongst so-called statemen. Khan's background in international law allows her to deal with emotive topics coolly and without recourse to sentimentality, but there's real heart and, sometimes, rightful anger in these books.

So activism, intelligence, rounded characters, and a continued intertwining of the personal and political makes this series stand head and shoulders above many out there.

This is my first read of this series featuring Inspector Esa Khattak and Sergeant Rachel Getty, RMCP community policing partners in Toronto. This is a intelligent, considered and such a moving addition, so impressively researched from an author with expertise in Human Rights Law, which she uses remarkably effectively in this emotionally harrowing book on the complexities and horrors of the Global Refugee Crisis, the terrors of the Syrian War, and the flood of fleeing refugees it created. Nathan Clare, a friend of Esa's, has a sister, Audrey, a NGO at a migrant refugee camp on the Greek Island of Lesvos has gone missing, and a French Interpol Agent and a young Syrian man have been discovered dead. Nathan is a powerful man with the ability to influence the Canadian PM, that results in Esa and Rachel travelling to the Mediterranean for Lesvos, to find out what happened to Audrey.

What they find is an unimaginable nightmare, a squalid and abysmal camp, a harrowing and disturbing picture of homeless, destitute, and vulnerable refugees facing starvation, despair, violence, and criminals who prey on and exploit them in a climate of implacable opposition to migrants, racism and religious intolerance. It is barely surprising that the refugees are distrustful as Esa and Rachel try to find out where Audrey might be, does she have dangerous knowledge that caused her to flee? Esa is a middle aged moderate Muslim with a modern outlook, and the Jewish Rachel has a traumatic past, and the pair have a close working relationship in this dark, intense and tense mystery as the many threads slowly begin to connect.

This is not an easy read, but it is an important one, a much needed informative novel that explores and depicts one of the most problematic and intractable issues of our age, the plight of refugees. It is heartbreaking in its simultaneous picture of the inhumanity of people juxtaposed with the humanity of those trying to do good. Khan writes with compassion, in a narrative that is infused with hope amidst the gut wrenching horrors and tragedies visited on refugees, the desperate state of Syria under Assad, the rise of Fortress Europe, whilst the humanitarian agencies struggle to cope with the ever growing crisis. This is not a read without flaws, for instance, I was irritated with the romantic elements that felt they had little place in the story, but the pertinent social and political commentary it provides makes it a must read, a novel which gives the reader an invaluable opportunity to learn about the grim realities of our world today. Highly recommended! Many thanks to Oldcastle Books for an ARC.

No Place of Refuge is the fourth novel to feature Canadian detectives Esa Khattak and Rachel Getty of the RCMP’s Community Police.

When NGO worker Audrey Clare disappears from the Greek island of Lesvos her powerful brother, Nathan, is worried, not least because two dead bodies were found in her tent. Asa Khattak and Rachel Getty are sent to Lesvos to investigate.

I can’t say that I enjoyed No Place of Refuge, simply because it is a difficult, harrowing read. I read fiction for entertainment and this is far from entertaining with its graphic descriptions of torture in Syria and the difficulties refugees face during and after their escape. It is informative and draws attention to a crisis which has unfairly slipped from prominence but light reading it ain’t.

Subject matter aside the novel is well written with several twists and a steady stream of reveals. This is the first novel in the series that I have read so I did feel the lack of knowledge of the characters’ backstories. There are summaries along the way but as most of the characters are uneasy in their interactions with the others I feel that I missed the nuances. There is a romance in the novel but it seems out of place given the subject matter and I have no understanding of their qualms and misunderstandings, it all seemed a bit first world to me amid such suffering.

I have awarded this novel 4* because of the light it throws on the Syrian refugee situation. It is a hard, difficult read but I’m glad I took it on.