In this second mystery in the series, our hero Akal Singh, a Sikh police officer who has been demoted to the remote backwater of Fiji after a security lapse (that was also a racial lapse - a non-white fraternizing with a white woman, shock!) is assigned to accompany a couple of Australian women to a smaller town where a relative has died. While they organize a household, Akal and his jocular Fijian sidekick look into rumors of Germans spying on the colony. Though the Great War is raging in Europe, it seems unlikely that Germans would bother with such a distant colony, yet as they investigate they encounter the body of an unpopular shopkeeper. Clearly something is afoot, and the younger of the Australians (who has ambitions to be a journalist) wants to be involved.

While the stakes seem lower in this series entry than in the first, which vividly depicted the injustices of a system that was imposed once slavery was made illegal (slavery lite?) the story moves quickly and the characters and setting are well depicted. The biggest twist for me was in reading the afterword, which described how much of the story is based on the historical record. I love learning from fiction, and the author does a a nice job of drawing on history to develop interesting stories.

I wanted to read Shipwreck because I read the first in the series, and I absolutely loved it. Unfortunately, this second installment didn't live up to expectations. It seemed to drag, and there was a lot of going back and forth between the locations without a lot of action.

This is the second outing for disgraced police officer Sergeant Akal Singh set in the colonial-era South Pacific. Singh is an engaging character, wrestling with racism, classism, and xenophobia from his superiors and settlers, at the same time navigating a new culture after his transfer from Hong Kong. Singh's perspective as an outsider and observer of all that is happening around him makes the mystery more compelling as you learn how he adeptly finds ways around the colonial systems in place to keep him in his place.

A Norwegian crew has washed ashore on the island Tuvalo -- or are they German? -- leads Sgt. Singh on to investigate. While WWI is raging in Europe has it now reached this faraway island? Singh must balance locating the crew with his additional responsibility of escorting two women to the island. The purpose of their visit is unclear and threatens to interfere with identifying who killed a local merchant. Sgt. Singh's intellect and his deep shame for previous actions that landed him in Fiji are important threads to be further explored as this series hopefully continues for many more installments.

I am grateful to NetGalley for the opportunity to read an eARC of this title because I loved Nijima Rao's first book, A Disappearance in Fiji!

#AShipwreckinFiji #NetGalley #SohoPress

A Shipwreck in Fiji by Nilima Rao continues the saga of Akal Singh, an East Indian police officer sent to Fiji in 1915. When he is sent to the neighboring island of Ovalau to escort two white ladies and also to see if there is any truth to the rumors of Germans hiding in the jungle. Rao writes a very good story while teaching about Fijian history and her characters make one really care about what happens next. I hope there are many more books to come.

In her second book in the Akal Singh series, Nilima Rao has matched or exceeded the excellent impression of her first mystery, Disappearance in Fiji. In A Shipwreck in Fiji, Akal Singh is sent to the island of Ovalou to accompany two British ladies, Mary and Katherine in order to help them clear the house of an uncle who has died. They have also assigned themselves to look for the grave of the uncle's wife who died from an early childbirth. Mary, and Katherine, in particular, seem unruffled by the small community of Ovalau. Katherine is full of curiosity and excitement about being on the island since they are residents of Suva, the capitol, and the environment of a small village, once the capitol of Fiji, presents an antidote to the bigger and busier town. Eventually, Dr. Holmes travels from Suva to examine the Indian victims of two brutal murders as Akal and Taviti try to identify the culprit.

The story, which takes place at the beginning of WWI, has a rich cast of characters, and Rao does an excellent job of including cultural and cross-cultural locations in the village of Levuka. Taviti, a native of the village and the nephew of the chief, shows Akal and the ladies local places of interest. Rao also explains the process of indentured servitude that eventually brought tens of thousands of Indians to work in the cane fields for five years or more. Other, more educated Indians also come to teach children or assist in other ways.

Most of the characters in the book are fictional, but two, Apolosi Nawai, a political prisoner, and Count von Luckner, a German who is masquerading as a friendly Norwegian. The friendship between Akal and Taviti mirrors the present day mix of Indians and Melanesians in Fiji, and it presages the somewhat complicated history of Fiji.

The environment of Fiji, the landscape of the island of Ovalau, and the geography of the various islands in the country is finely drawn. The mystery of the deaths that take place is cleverly explained, and the reader is kept engaged by the plot and secrets of the various characters. The book is fast-paced and compelling. I look forward to the next book featuring Akal Singh.

I was so excited when I was able to request a prepublication eARC through NetGalley. I enjoyed the first book about Sergeant Akal Singh, and in my opinion, this second series entry, set in Fiji during World War I, was even better, in part because the focus was more on the mystery and less on Rao's backstory, although needed details were effortlessly woven into the story, as were historical and cultural details. I am already waiting for the next series entry.

After thoroughly enjoying "A Disappearance in Fiji," I was extremely pleased to find that Nilima Rao is expanding into a full series. And "A Shipwreck in Fiji" immediately proved to be an absolutely wonderful follow-up that possesses the exact same charm of its predecessor. Simply put, I found it to be a wonderful blend of cozy mystery, and my personal favorite kind of historical fiction - one that takes me to a particular time and more specifically, a place that I've yet to travel to before, and allows me to experience it at a depth I never would have previously imagined. I'm already greatly looking forward to the third book in the series (and hopefully, more in the wake after that).