Review of The Trafficking Murders

[zainherb]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Trafficking Murders" by Brian O'Hare.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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When Lin Hui and her friend, Mingzhu, arrived in Belfast on scholarship, they were excited. They liked school and befriended two interesting, charismatic lecturers. Little did they know these lecturers were grooming them for an illegal escort service run by a sinister individual called The Shadow. When Lin Hui and Mingzhu tried to quit, one of them ended up dead and the other, in fear for her life.

Alina left her village in Romania with a rich stranger who had promised to get her a good job in Ireland. Her hopes were quickly dashed when the stranger took her to a shipyard instead of an airport. Alina was put with some young girls like her in a container on a steamer ship to Belfast. The brutes in charge of the girls battered and raped them throughout the journey, claiming to be training them for their new job. Inspector Sheehan and his team are investigating the murder of the Chinese girl. But who is The Shadow? And what does a dead Chinese girl have to do with a bunch of trafficked girls?

There were many things I liked about The Trafficking Murders. The plot was interesting and intricately woven till the very end. I have been reading mystery novels for a long time and have gotten quite good at figuring out the culprit about halfway through the novel. However, only few things about this novel were predictable, and the culprit was not one of them. The novel dealt with heavy topics such as human trafficking, forced prostitution and murder, but the author, Brian O'Hare, kept the tone light using humour, light banter and romance. In addition, I like learning new things from novels and I learnt many new things from this book. The characters were also interesting and likeable. My favourite character is Connor. He is strong, impatient and lacks subtlety, but he does the job. The editor did an amazing job; I did not find a single error in the entire book, and this made reading easy.

There was nothing I disliked about this book. I award it four out of four stars.

The Trafficking Murders is a mystery book with a heavy dose of intrigue and a sprinkling of romance. Readers who like books like this are going to enjoy reading this one. It is more suited to mature readers because of the violence and references to sexual assault. I would not recommend it to readers who are sensitive to these topics or those who prefer nonfiction books.

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The Trafficking Murders
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