A finely detailed literary mystery set in contemporary Saudi Arabia, Ferraris's debut centers on Nouf ash-Shrawi, a 16-year-old girl who disappeared into the desert three days before her marriage and has been found dead, several weeks pregnant. Palestinian Nayir al-Sharqi who lives in Jeddah and works occasionally for the rich Shrawi family, is asked by them to investigate Nouf's death discreetly. Nayir, a conservative Muslim and an outsider because of his nationality, his class and his large stature, is wary of traversing the wide gulf between Saudi men's and women's worlds, and is encouraged by his friend Othman, an adopted son of the Shrawis, to seek out the help of Katya Hijazi, Othman's fiance. Katya has a Ph.D. and is employed in the women's section of the state medical examiner's office. As Nayir and Katya's investigation progresses, it becomes clear that at least one of the Shrawis has something to hide. Ferraris, who has lived in Saudi Arabia, gets deep inside Nayir's and Katya's very different perspectives, giving a fascinating glimpse into the workings and assumptions of Saudi society. As a mystery, it's fairly well-turned, but it's the characters and setting that sparkle. (June) Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Drawing on the years she spent with her former husband's Saudi-Palestinian Bedouin family, Ferraris offers a first novel about a Saudi desert guide puzzling over a teenaged girl's death. With a six-city tour; rights sold to 13 countries. (LJ 2/1/08) Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Fictional detectives are a diverse bunch, but surely debut novelist Ferraris, an American who married into a Saudi family, has created the first devoutly Muslim sleuth living in a contemporary Islamic state. Nayir, desert guide to Jeddah's elite, agrees to play PI when the teen daughter of his wealthiest client turns up dead in a wadi. As Nayir's discoveries illuminate the lives of his country's sequestered women, his worldview is further stretched by Katya, a forensics technician connected to the victim's family. Her voice alternates with Nayir's as they defy legal and spiritual precepts to cooperate on the case. Though competently constructed, the mystery falters during suspect interrogations that seem too professional to square with Nayir's amateur role. It's his bumbling, vulnerable side that will stick with readers, as will the story's memorable cultural set pieces, especially the incongruous coat bazaar, where suitors buy parkas for brides dreaming of world travel. Lure readers with mentions of CSI and, say, Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003), but this is better than such glib genre mash-ups tend to suggest.--Mattson, Jennifer Copyright 2008 Booklist From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.