by Lavie Tidhar
First published 2011
Joe works as a private detective in a world where global terrorism never existed. A mysterious woman hires him to track down an elusive writer who creates pulp fiction starring Osama bin Laden as a vigilante hero. The case takes Joe from remote Asian locations to Paris and London as he follows leads that grow stranger by the day. Unknown attackers pursue him while his own sense of identity begins to crack. He encounters refugees who seem like phantoms drifting through his reality. Joe cannot determine where they originate or what they seek from him. The investigation leads him to New York and finally to a hillside overlooking Kabul. There he must confront revelations about himself and his world that challenge everything he believed. The truth forces Joe to make an impossible choice that will determine not just his fate but his very existence.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, detective, alternate-history
Vibes: dark, emotional, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: identity-crisis, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Asia, Kabul, London, New York, Paris
Period: 21st-century
276 pages · Hardcover · PS Publishing
Content warnings: violence