A Crime in the Land of 7,000 Islands

A Crime in the Land of 7,000 Islands
Zephaniah Sole, 2023

Premise: How do you cope with horror? How do you cope when it's your job? How do you explain the worst things to a child?

I read a strong recommendation for this book on a favorite author's best of the year list, and soon took the opportunity to read something a little out of my usual genres. This book is half a crime thriller, and half a completely unique work of mythmaking. 

The story follows both FBI agent Ikigai Johnson, in her work on a specific case trying to bring a man who preys on children to justice, and her daughter piecing together the story of the case years later. When Ikigai traveled to the Philippines in search of witnesses to the man's crimes, her then-preteen daughter demanded that her mother explain the case that took her so far away. 

And eventually she does so as a beautiful work of myth, in which planes are giant birds and boats are powerful turtle spirits and her mother is a warrior called by the gods to do her work. You can read it on multiple levels because you can tell what the various euphemisms mean, but it's told in a way that the daughter could understand the truth without having to understand the full horror of the story. This is intercut with the daughter's own memories of the time and her in the present discussing the case with one of Ikigai's old coworkers to get another perspective on what happened.

It's not a light read, it fairly honestly deals with extremely evil acts, but it was incredibly compelling. 

4 Stars - A Very Good Book