My book recommendation for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia is Finding Nouf by Zoë Ferraris.

I love mysteries. And if a mystery involves a murder, all the better. And if the murder mystery involves a mismatched Odd Couple-esque duo set on solving the murder together, I’m game. Now put that murder mystery in an exotic locale where cultural mores and norms will impact how a case can be solved and will present challenges that the protagonists must navigate to figure out whodunnit – count me in! Welcome to Finding Nouf.

When Nouf ash-Shrawi, a 16-year-old from a prominent Saudi Arabian family, goes missing, Nayir al-Shaari, a Palestinian desert guide (who lives on a sailboat in the Jeddah harbor, go figure), is hired to look for her. Unfortunately, before he can locate her, she winds up being found dead – apparently from drowning. Drowning? In the desert? Tell me more. Nayir, feeling bad that he couldn’t find her in time to save her, offers to gather her body from the coroner for the family. While at the coroner’s office, he has to deal with a pesky female Ph.D.-level lab tech who is overly forward and brash – I mean, she has the audacity to speak up – and this makes Nayir, a super-duper conservative Muslim, quite uncomfortable.  But he perseveres. Anyway, while at the coroner’s office and then at Nouf’s family’s home, Nayir begins to suspect that Nouf was murdered rather than being a runaway (as he had been told) who accidentally died. She was about to be wed (which, c’mon, at 16 I would have bolted) – but it turns out that she had intended to have her husband take her to NYC where she would ditch him (not a bad plan, Nouf). Also, she was prego – a big no no for an unwed 16-year-old in many places, but especially in this Middle Eastern don’t-be-caught-by-the-marriage-police-alone-with-a-dude-as-a-single-woman-or-else country. Nayir joins forces with an unlikely person. You guessed it – the lab tech from the coroner’s office, Katya Hijazi, who also suspected foul play and who is engaged to Nouf’s brother, Othman. Oh, and she’s 28, which is apparently ancient in terms of a single woman. Nayir is super uncomfortable around Katya because, well, she’s a woman and has a face and ankles and makes direct eye contact. Hussy!

I’ll stop there so I don’t spoil the story. I will say it was actually really interesting to see how super-conservative devout Muslim Nayir interacted with others and perceived the world around him. He winds up getting a coat that makes him look like Colombo, which of course I appreciate. Then, his “partner” by default, Katya, serves as the forensics guru. So, it’s basically Colombo meets CSI in Jeddah. Isn’t that imagery magical? 

Ok, but what about Jeddah, Saudi Arabia as the setting? It was a great book for getting a feel about the location, culture, traditions, and overall feel of the Middle East. There were many references to prayers and Mecca and laws and, well, a ton of little details that made me happy to be a woman in America rather than a woman in Saudi Arabia. 

For example, did you know…In the Muslim tradition, graves should be perpendicular to the direction of Mecca so that when the deceased is laid to rest (on their right side) they face Mecca in death to await the day of resurrection? (This is actually how Nayir discovers that Nouf was pregnant, as he notices she was placed in the grave in an atypical position – one that would have the unborn fetus facing Mecca instead of the mother.) Also, flash floods in the desert – it happens. (Though perhaps I would be more accurate to say in the wadis – or the valleys that serve as riverbeds.)

It’s important to remember this book was originally published in 2008. A lot has changed since then in Saudi Arabia, and so some of the things described aren’t as true. For example, the book mentions the marriage (morality) police (officially titled the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice) quite a bit – the mutawa – and how they could stop a male and female and ask for proof they are married or else the couple could be in trouble and charged with prostitution or worse. Also, they enforce ‘decency’ so women not properly covered could get in trouble. This force was sidelined in 2016. Similarly, in the book, women can’t drive (changed in 2018), separate entrances for men and women were needed for restaurants (changed in 2019), and a male guardian was needed to travel abroad, hence the need to be married and ditch the new hubby (but this was changed in 2019 as well). These are relatively new things, though, put in place as part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plan to modernize Saudi Arabia and relax the conservative social code. And maybe that’s the thing to remember – it’s only recently that these rights – limited as they are – have been in place. And Finding Nouf is a reminder of what was – and for some things, what still is.

Right now, my biggest issue with this book is that I’m trying to work my way through different locations and I have to choose – move on to a different location or read the next book in the series (City of Veils). I liked this one enough – the characters, the story, the little extras that gave me an insight into the Saudi culture – all of it – that I’m torn. My guess is I’ll read City of Veils (published in 2010) and the third one, Kingdom of Strangers (published in 2012). Of course, those will also be out of date, but I’ll survive.