This is such a difficult book to review. I read it a few weeks ago and decided to let it sit with me for a while before writing my review ... I'm still digesting and that is testament to the power of The Khan (the novel not the character). But here goes - here's my take on this great novel without hopefully giving away any plot spoilers.
This is a no holds barred narrative that allows Muslim voices to be heard in a way rarely seen before. It doesn't shy away from themes around drugs, power, corruption, the role of women, gangs and survival from the point of view of Jia Khan - the eldest daughter of the current Khan.
Jia is an enigma to me . She's turned her back on her family and their northern lifestyle to move away to become a lawyer in London. But, Mir, in a series of twists that left me breathless exposes secrets and events that make everything I'd previously believed about the narrative redundant. Jia herself is unlikeable - but that unlikeability serves to make her more real and it certainly kept me entranced. Her coldness served its purpose in keeping a distance between Jia and the other characters - those she loves and who love her and also the reader, who has yet to come to a decision about her.
This is a well written, thoughtful and authentic story that will remain in my thoughts for a long time. More please.

The first I have read of a female gang boss and more to the fact it’s based in England. Loved all the twists and turns and to actually see things from a woman’s perspective too. The story unfolds about father and daughter too.

I have mixed feelings about The Khan. It paints a vivid picture of the world of the gangsters, and is a fresh take on a familiar trope. However it does feel weighed down by exposition, in the dialogue and especially in the thoughts of the characters. Most people don't go through their day reflecting on how cultural and socio-economic factors have led them to their current state. It would make for a pacier, more interesting story if these conflicts were dramatised.

However, I appreciate it's a first novel. The ending suggests that this might be part of a series. If so, I'd be interested to see how it goes. And the cover is gorgeous!
*
I received a copy of The Khan from Netgalley.

When I heard that a book about a female crime boss set in Bradford was to be published I was sceptical.

The Khan is a book that keeps you on the edge of your seat, it is full of twists and turns and has a spectacular character in Jia Khan.

A lot of people will say this book stereotypes Bradford and I would agree in some places it does but what Mir does is weave the history and current political situation of the city into a narrative that is plausible.

The Khan is not just about Jia Khan but when father, Akbar Khan and the many Khans in the book that are bound by loyalty and blood.

This book is a masterpiece and I look forward to reading more by Saima Mir.

I just devoured this debut novel. My only disappointment is that she doesn't have a bunch of other books out that I can get completely lost in. The novel felt so reminiscent of Mario Puzo's The Godfather. The pacing, the language, the drama. The understanding of familial ties and that the reason behind organised crime was in many cases survival.

Loved that I really felt Jia's plight, her motivations and how she had spent so long swimming against the current that she finally recognised her birthright. I also loved the mention of Darjeeling Express (not so coincidentally owned by another Khan).

Jia Khan is the daughter of the Khan, leader of the Pukhutan Muslim community in Bradford and head of an organised crime group that distributes drugs around Yorkshire. She initially rejects her upbringing, studies at Oxford and becomes a well-paid respected lawyer before her sister's wedding draws her back to Bradford where she becomes embroiled in that life once again.

Part of the interest in this book is the description of this community: its customs and morality which holds young Muslims more tightly than British justice which has always treated them badly. It is also a thriller and a family saga with much on the position of women in the Muslim community and the wider world, as well as reflections on white privilege and justice.

I would describe it as a cross between The Godfather, a Harold Robbins (there is some description of expensive watches, Rolls Royces, beautiful bags and what money can bring) and Catherine Cookson, there's certainly a bit of family saga here too.

Overall I was interested and wanted to finish the novel, but found it a cold book. Any questions around the morality of drug dealing are not really dealt with beyond the notion that this provides a service to people who need them to cope, and Jia certainly emerges as a strong character but not sympathetic.

I've never read anything like this, and I'm not completely sure what to make of it. On the one hand, it's a grippingly well-told thriller with compelling characters, strong writing and a great sense of place and atmosphere. On the other ... well, what?

Perhaps my discomfort is simply about the moral ambiguity of the family, and particularly the woman, at the centre of the narrative. Jia Khan is the potential heir of a powerful crime family, and the meat of the novel is based in the ethical dilemmas (familial, romantic, political, religious, cultural) around the place of this family in the world. It is unusual perspective, and Jia is an unusual protagonist, and not always a sympathetic one. In many ways the narrative perspective is cold and distant, which sometimes dissipates the tension that is present in the plot, and this heightens the dissonance. It's rather a brilliant effect, but certainly an uncomfortable one.

I loved the sense of place and culture that Mir creates - it's a book steeped in Muslim traditions, British-Asian traditions, Pukhtun traditions, Bradford traditions. The attitudes to race, ethnicity, religion and gender are satisfyingly deep and complex.

I hope this book does well - it deserves to be read widely.

4.5/5 stars.

My thanks to Oneworld Publications and NetGalley for the ARC.

An incredibly powerful crime Thriller set in Bradford exploring the very secretive and deeply strong Pakistani Crime Underworld.

Almost a family saga, this story from Saima Khan tells of the Khan Family, the heads of the Bradford Crime Jirga. In particular the story focuses on Jia Khan, the estranged daughter of ‘The Khan’ - her father who has ruled the Bradford crime operation for many years.

Returning home after years away, to her sisters wedding, Jia finds herself soon in a power struggle for control when her father is killed.

Does she want to give up her life and return and take over.

Compelling and intriguing as well as brutal at times, this is an immersive, taut and intense view of Pakistani life, family and crime culture and it’s a cracking debut.

Saima Mir has written one of the best crime reads of 2021, set in the violent, blood drenched streets of Bradford, a city of contradictions where nothing is black and white and no-one's loyalties are straightforward. This dark and edgy novel has one of the most complex and mesmerising central protagonists in Jai, daughter of the undisputed, powerful crime kingpin of the city, Akbar Khan, a proud Pukhtan and Muslim, universally revered in the Pakistani community as The Khan, ruling with an iron will, through the power of ancient traditions, religion, rituals and sacrifice, and with others through his Jirga, the dispenser of justice, and one of the main providers of 'employment' in the community. Akbar is reconciled to the unpalatable aspects of his leadership, believing this to be an acceptable price to pay for the greater good, without sinners there can be no saints.

For 15 years, Jai has been estranged from her crime family, putting her belief in British justice, having built a successful career as a lawyer in London. She is unforgiving of her father's role in the death of her beloved brother, Zan, a death that destroyed her marriage to Elyas Ahmad, a man who singlehandedly raised their teenage son, Ahad, whom she has not seen since his birth. The time has come to return to the family to attend the wedding of her sister, Maria, only to find herself staying as her father is murdered, her brother, Benyamin in danger, her family is in disarray,the Jirga needs stabilising, an organisation crying out for renewal in the midst of the challenges it faces from within the community, and additionally from the Eastern Europeans, under Andrzej Nowak's 'Brotherhood' gang, ruthlessly intent on taking over their drug trade and other criminal activities.

Has Jai got what it takes to be the new Khan? She is, after all, a woman, the duplicitous world of men expect women to be draped in honour, and certainly not at the helm of the most powerful of criminal enterprises. However, Jai begins to realise she has misunderstood her father, a father who knew she was the one with the abilities required to take over from him, a position that demands blood be spilt. As events conspire to test her to her limits, Jai reaches for the ice cold resolve to be The Khan, but where does this all fit in with her desire to get to know her son? Mir incrementally depicts and reveals the rich tapestry of the intricate, complicated and contrary nature and dynamics of family, community, and crime, within a city, country, police force and judiciary historically steeped in a damning, bone deep racism, creating the scenario where crime provides the only route out of desperate poverty for the underclass.

This is a riveting, thought provoking, atmospheric, vibrant and twisted character driven novel of love, family, loss, betrayal, corruption, crime, race, power and being a woman in the mean streets of Bradford that simmer with tension and death. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Oneworld Publications for an ARC.

Thanks to Oneworld publications and Netgalley for an ARC.

This is a really interesting premise - a young, charismatic lawyer leaves her priveleged life in London to return to her northern roots after her father is murdered. She needs to re-immerse herself in the culture of her Pakistani heritage and the fragile balance of order and disorder in the northern city her father kept in check. Events unfold rapidly, rival factions rush into the void created by her father's absence and she fears the consequences of failure.
There are some terrific descriptions of customs, and fascinating riffs on why people behave as they do, but ultimately for me, all of the characters remained opaque and I could not completely immerse myself in this world.

Uncompromising, unapologetic and unforgiving: Jia Khan is one of the most unlikable main characters I have ever come across and that’s exactly why you should read this book. Crime family stories are not new yet Saima Mir has managed to produce an innovative, rich and very dark story of such a family watching over their territory from a mansion on a hill. Jia Khan grabs the reader by the neck and drags them headlong through her story and life at a breathless pace. This is the world of the Khan and we just live in it. The story is original and full of surprising twists up until the last few pages and I devoured it. More than that, the way that the Khan came into being and the reasons for this shadowy, powerful figure are explained and demonstrated beautifully through an excoriating reflection on race, womanhood, marginalisation and the criminalisation of minoritised communities in the UK all woven into the tapestry of the story of a family trying to survive and keep their community alive and safe. It’s hard to sympathise with both Jia and her father’s (the original Khan) moralising around their actions and at times, her self-centredness and detachment was grating. But I think that’s the point – this isn’t about agreeing with her or even liking her; it’s a defiant exposition on how unrealistic it is to see the world in black and white. It is also very difficult to find works with strong female characters from a Muslim background where the religion is an undercurrent rather than placed in front of everything else. The characters' community and traditions are more prominent as guiding their rules and justice - it is not their faith which justifies their violence and that is really important. A fantastic debut and I can definitely see myself revisiting this in the future. I just wish I had the paperback!

My thoughts about this brilliantly written, heartbreaking family underworld crime thriller, was just fantastic. Debut Author Saima Mir’s The Khan, explores everything about the underworld,be it love, loss, family,betrayal,corruption money,power, you name it, it has all the elements,to be a powerful thriller. The characters in The Khan are so real you fall in love with them.Saima Mir not only writes a fantastic hardhiting story, she explores the characters in a different way, that you feel sorry, for each and every of them that suffer pain. The characters I loved were Jia Khan, she was a fantastic character, what Saima has written, a powerful character that truly is remarkable. Her love for her family, be it her father, her mother, brothers and sisters was so heartwarming. Saima Khan’s The Khan, has some of the best heart touching moments, that will melt your heart. A well written, underworld powerful story, that is going to take you on a journey through the darkness, the people you love. Take a bow Saima Mir, you have nailed it with your powerful debut thriller, that has blown me away. This definitely deserves to be big next year, the best debut of 2021. I’m going to recommend this one, to everyone, who loves to read a powerful thriller. Highly Recommended. A powerful debut that truly deserves appreciation. I would like to say thank you to Author Saima Khan,Margot Weale of Oneworld and Point World Crime books for giving me a chance and kindly sending me a proof copy, to read and review this outstanding hardhiting powerful story. No wonder it’s been optioned for a TV adaptation, by the bbc looking forward to it. Wow what a debut.

Jia Khan is the daughter of Akbar Khan, The Khan. While her father and his Jirga control a large part of Yorkshire, where they exact their own forms of justice, Jia is a successful lawyer in London. She's an alumni of Oxford University who believes in the British Justice System. She has distanced herself from her family and her father's business for 15 years, working her way up to the top of her profession. But her father's murder means that Jia must return north and make a bold decision on where her future lies.

The Khan is a novel that not only combines the twists and turns one would expect from a thriller of this nature, but is a story that is packed with characters that leap off the page. I often find that books with a large cast of characters can leave those characters feeling a little hollow, however that definitely isn't the case with The Khan. Saima Mir manages to draw us into each of their lives - with some it's just a snapshot of one moment of one day in their life and yet, somehow, she makes us care.

This novel takes us on a journey, not only uncovering Jia's past and family history, but also the future of the family & the Jurga, when outsiders seek to steal The Khan's power. There's violence and plotting, family secrets and love, and it's one of those books that is so hard to put down.

They advise to not judge a book by its cover.

Wise words indeed.

But, just sometimes, advice, however sage and well-intentioned, is best ignored. And this is one of those occasions. Besides, who exactly are they?

I first saw “The Khan”, or rather, its cover, in a tweet and was, figuratively, stopped in my tracks. It is a striking cover. Additionally, it is a sexy cover. The title - in a simple sans-serif font - sits boldly in crisp white letters on a rich black background; the “K” in Khan cleverly fashioned to form a gun, the remaining letters blood-spattered - the hint of violence and destruction is unmistakable; the tagline, “I Am Justice”, reinforces the earlier suggestion of darkness within. And, finally, the profile of a woman’s face - golden coloured, serene and beautiful with a hint of fragility despite the title’s red-flecked letters that warn of danger - emerges from that night-blackness to assert her dominance over the scene

It’s a simple cover, very well done, and done very well. Everything about it screams “reach for me, hold me, read me”. It had me hooked.

But, as stated earlier, covers, judgment, etc. It’s the words on the pages beneath the cover that will ultimately determine any books’ success.

The author, Bradford-born Saima Mir, can breathe easy at this point; the words match the fine cover that wraps around her debut novel.

“The Khan” is a well-written and immensely enjoyable tale of a crime family in a Northern English city - the early parts of the novel will have you wondering which of two cities Mir set her story in before, certainly if you’re live around these parts (which I do), the latter part confirms your suspicions.

In some respects “The Khan” reminded me of Mario Puzo’s “The Godfather”. A bold assertion I know and one which I suspect I may get called out on. However, whilst Mir’s book is set, not on the exciting, pulsing, glamorous streets of New York but instead in a Yorkshire city blighted by a lack of funding, resources, and hope, I think they share similar themes.

For Puzo it was all about the Italian Mafia and the Sicilian immigrants and families which powered that syndicate; Saima Mir’s book is set among the Pakistani community and its ties to Asian cultures in modern-day Britain.

Both “The Khan” and Puzo’s epic tell the tales of powerful crime families whose founding members are recent immigrants to their new country, each family with a rigid - and rigidly enforced - hierarchy whose criminal activities extend into many aspects of the cities over which they rule. More importantly, both concern family members eager to break family ties and live their lives free from the taint of criminality. Dreams which the central characters in each book find thwarted as they are pulled back into the family fold they desperately long to escape.

If asked to describe this book in an “elevator pitch style”, I’d use just four words; “British Pakistani Godfather saga”.

I’d probably add a few more, damn good too.

Mir’s writing is fierce, fast, and furious. Her prose is sharp and, often, poetic; Mir can craft lines that are evocative and beautiful. There is pace and passion, danger, and glamour in this tale, the plot has depth and nuance, twists, and turns. It is a riveting read.

That’s not to say I didn’t have a niggle or two with “The Khan”. But these were minor things which some folks probably wouldn’t even pay heed to; I can be very, often wrongly, persnickety. Even so, and putting my paltry niggles to one side, I found this to be an excellent read.

Ms. Mir has certainly set the bar quite high and I very much look forward to her next book; both her writing on its pages and the next sensational cover that contains them.

Can you judge a book by its cover? Hell, yes.