Who killed Alan Lee? The Malaysian police have no doubt that the murderer is Chelsea Liew, his beautiful ex-wife and a victim of Lee’s violence and philandering for the last 20 years. The former Singaporean model had the motive. Her husband had just pulled a low stunt to wrench her away from their three children. The pork-loving, beer-guzzling timber mogul had converted to Islam, a move that lobbed the case to the Syariah (Shariah) courts, not known for its sympathy towards non-Muslim mothers in custody battles.

The Singapore government, anxious to be seen to be doing something for its citizen, sends Inspector Singh to assist the investigation and ensure Chelsea gets a fair trial. The Sikh detective from Singapore is, in some ways, like a typical Indian policeman: he’s fat, hairy and lumbering. But he is a maverick, a listener among policemen, able to worm into the silences of people trapped in prison cells and make them talk.

Singh is soon convinced of Chelsea’s innocence and, with the help of a reluctant Sergeant Shukor, begins digging into the murky life of Alan Lee. Suspects crawl out of the woodwork, including Lee’s elder brother Jasper, an environment activist who confesses—and then retracts his statement—that he killed his brother for plundering rainforests.

Despite a shaky start, Shamini Flint’s A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder takes readers on a smooth ride. The most striking character of the novel is Chelsea, not the inspector. Her fight to gain control over her battered life and her children is the emotional arc of the plot. Inspector Singh is not a detective wont to dazzling epiphanies that crack open the mystery but a thoughtful man who engages our sympathy. Flint does not set up the plot as a puzzle to be solved by a clever sleight of mind. Instead, the murderer is revealed as events gain momentum and the plot peels away to its denouement —not because of the efforts of the well-meaning cops.

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