Ava Lee gets a call from Manila businessman Chang Wang asking for a favour. Senator Ramirez needs her forensic fact-gathering talents to quietly investigate a suspected jihadist training school on the island of Tawi-Tawi, in the southern Philippines. Ava follows the money used to finance the school, and once she realizes the frightening scale of the terror plot involving hundreds of students, she teams up with CIA agent Alasdair Dulles to try to avert a catastrophe. This was a less satisfying read than normal.

I received an eARC via Netgalley and House of Anansi Press with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book and provided this review.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have a couple of cautions. First, I received a free copy of the book via Netgalley. Second, I am a huge fan of the Ava Lee series and have read all of the books. I think they are terrific.

In this book, Ava undertakes an investigation for a previous client of her defunct debt recovery business. This takes her to Mindanao in the southern Philippines to look into a suspicious school. The fear is that it is training Islamic terrorists. Ava applies her usual forensic accountant investigation methods, e.g. follow the money. There's a lot of the usual frenetic travel around Asia (Ava seems to have conquered jet lag) and for a change of pace she goes to Australia to interview a former student of the college. All this activity is in aid of a shocking and surprising conclusion.

I saw a different Ava in this book, which shares similarities with the early James Bond novels. She is on her own much more than before, her usual sidekicks are nowhere to be seen. Even her Toronto banker is barred from helping her. This means she needs to enlist new support, e.g. the RCMP officer she met in a previous book and a CIA agent. There's a mention in the author's Acknowledgement that this book went through several iterations: is the final product an unhappy compromise between an attempt to refresh Ava"s character and one to branch out to geopolitical intrigue? I am fussed that Ava (and the series) might become another run-of-the mill "thriller" series.

Despite my concerns, this is a good story, although not one of the best books in the series.

I'm a long-time fan of the Ava Lee books, and am thrilled to see this newest title is set in the Philippines. An old friend of Uncle's calls Ava to request a personal favour -- his friend Senator Miguel Ramirez fears that a college in southern Philippines is actually a training ground for terrorists, and he'd like Ava to investigate. 

Imam of Tawi-Tawi is probably one of my favourite Ava Lee mysteries. I've never really been much of a fan of her superhuman fighting ability, and action movie fight scenes, and my favourite stories have always been where her humanity and vulnerability are allowed to show. So I absolutely loved the cerebral nature of this novel's plot. There's some action near the end, but mostly, it's a very thorough investigation of paperwork and files, and there's a lot of strategizing about how to get the answers she needs. 

There's also a lot of questions raised about justice, prejudice and the struggles faced by Muslims. While Hamilton doesn't delve too deep into the complex history of Islam in the pre-dominantly Catholic Philippines, nor about the currently charged political climate of the country, he does touch on the subject. His characters note that the conservative Christian President of the Philippines would be likely to come down hard on the college at even the slightest suspicion of terrorist activity, and the actions of the American and Canadian intelligence officers who work with Ava show little regard for the students and staff at the college. The big reveal of the mastermind and motivation behind the events calls to question the assumptions the characters and we as readers have made throughout the story, and the response of various characters to this reveal is sadly all too realistic.

Imam of Tawi Tawi is an engaging and compelling mystery. Ava is forced to come to some tough decisions, and her choices, as well as the reasoning behind them, are a huge part of what makes her such a compelling character and what makes these mysteries such fun to read.

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Thank you to House of Anansi for an e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

**Review to go live on the blog [link below] closer to the publishing date - scheduled for Jan 8, 2018.**