A Disappearance in Fiji is set in 1914, where 25-year-old Sergeant Akal Singh has been sent to colonial Fiji as punishment for a humiliating professional mistake in Hong Kong. Lonely and grumpy, he is reluctantly assigned to investigate the disappearance of an indentured Indian woman from a sugarcane plantation. What begins as a cursory case quickly pulls him into the brutal realities of indentured servitude, the racism of British colonisers, and the collision of cultures between white plantation owners, Indian workers, and native Fijians.
My Review
A debut mystery set in 1914 colonial Fiji, following a semi-disgraced Sikh police sergeant who would very much like to be somewhere else. That setup alone is enough to make this worth picking up, because Fiji is genuinely rare territory for historical crime fiction, and Nilima Rao makes the most of it.
Sergeant Akal Singh has been sent from Hong Kong to Fiji as punishment for a professional mistake, and his goal is simple: solve enough cases well enough to earn his way back. When an indentured Indian woman disappears from a sugarcane plantation, he is assigned to investigate with explicit instructions not to make waves. The plantation owners treat him with the same contempt they show their workers, which both complicates and, in its own way, clarifies his investigation. What he discovers is more morally tangled than anyone wanted him to find.
The historical backdrop is the strongest element here. The indentured labour system, which was functionally slavery dressed in paperwork, is rendered with real care, and Akal’s position as an outsider to multiple communities simultaneously, not quite trusted by the plantation owners, not quite one of the workers, navigating caste and race and colonial hierarchy all at once, gives the book genuine texture. The Author’s Note is worth staying for.
Where I found myself less convinced was with Akal himself. He waffles and turns inward at moments when the mystery needed him to push forward, and the investigation could have used more procedural rigour. The twist, when it arrived, felt a little underpowered for the build-up.
Still, this is a promising start to a series with a setting and a protagonist worth spending more time with. Three and a half stars, and I’ll be back for the next one.