A Disappearance in Fiji
A charming and atmospheric debut mystery featuring a 25-year-old Indian police sergeant investigating a missing persons case in colonial Fiji
1914, Fiji: Akal Singh, 25, would rather be anywhere but this tropical paradise—or, as he calls it, “this godforsaken island.” After a promising start to his police career in Hong Kong, Akal has been sent to Fiji as punishment for a humiliating professional mistake. Lonely and grumpy, Akal plods through his work and dreams of getting back to Hong Kong or his native India.
When an indentured Indian woman goes missing from a sugarcane plantation and Fiji’s newspapers scream “kidnapping,” the inspector-general reluctantly assigns Akal the case. Akal, eager to achieve redemption, agrees—but soon finds himself far more invested than he could have expected.
Now not only is he investigating a disappearance, but also confronting the brutal realities of the indentured workers’ existence and the racism of the British colonizers in Fiji—along with his own thorny notions of personhood and caste. Early interrogations of the white plantation owners, Indian indentured laborers, and native Fijians yield only one conclusion: there is far more to this case than meets the eye.
Nilima Rao’s sparkling debut mystery offers an unflinching look at the evils of colonialism, even as it brims with wit, vibrant characters, and fascinating historical detail.
1914, Fiji: Akal Singh, 25, would rather be anywhere but this tropical paradise—or, as he calls it, “this godforsaken island.” After a promising start to his police career in Hong Kong, Akal has been sent to Fiji as punishment for a humiliating professional mistake. Lonely and grumpy, Akal plods through his work and dreams of getting back to Hong Kong or his native India.
When an indentured Indian woman goes missing from a sugarcane plantation and Fiji’s newspapers scream “kidnapping,” the inspector-general reluctantly assigns Akal the case. Akal, eager to achieve redemption, agrees—but soon finds himself far more invested than he could have expected.
Now not only is he investigating a disappearance, but also confronting the brutal realities of the indentured workers’ existence and the racism of the British colonizers in Fiji—along with his own thorny notions of personhood and caste. Early interrogations of the white plantation owners, Indian indentured laborers, and native Fijians yield only one conclusion: there is far more to this case than meets the eye.
Nilima Rao’s sparkling debut mystery offers an unflinching look at the evils of colonialism, even as it brims with wit, vibrant characters, and fascinating historical detail.
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Community Reviews
The Fijian Indian Australian Writer Nilima Rao’s novel, A Disappearance in Fiji, is centered on police sergeant Akil Singh. Singh is a Punjabi Sinkh who serves as a police sergeant in the British Empire (Roa 5). Singh was a successful police officer in Hong Kong. A scandal in Hong Kong revealed during the novel forced Singh to leave Hong Kong under a cloud scandal. The novel is set during World War I. Singh resigned from an understaffed police force in the British colony of Fiji. A Roman Catholic Missionary reports a female Indian indentured servant named Kunti as missing. Singh is assigned by his boss, who is skeptical of Singh’s abilities as an investigator, assigns him to investigate the disappearance of Kunti due to pressure from the Indian government. Since Singh arrived in Fiji, he has avoided the community of Indian indentured servants. Between 1879 and 1916, “around 60,965 Indian laborers” (Leckie 25). The New Zealand-based anthropologist Jacqueline Leckie writes that Indian laborers were “recruited mainly for the sugar industry, which became the foundation of Fiji’s modern economy” (Leckie 26). During A Disappearance in Fiji, Singh's attitude towards the community of Indian laborers softened. Singh becomes very interested in finding the truth about Kunti's disappearance. Rao’s novel, A Disappearance in Fiji, was an entertaining mystery novel.
Works Cited:
Leckie, Jacqueline. 2020. Colonizing Madness: Asylum and Community in Fiji. Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawai’i Press. Kindle.
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