Twenty years from now, the Caliphate dominates the world, but things are not going well. Internal dissent is rising, revolt simmers, and renewed war is on the horizon. It is under these circumstances that a new Caliph calls for a peace conference in a desperate effort to fend off further conflict.
And it is just before this peace conference is due to begin that one of the delegates is discovered beheaded out in the desert. Who is trying to sabotage the conference and plunge the planet back into conflict? With time running out, the Caliph calls on Colin and Rose to find the answer.
Due to the length of this story – about 22300 words – it is presented as a downloadable .pdf file.
It took awhile, but I just finished your novella. Quite a lot going on. A classic murder mystery that actually qualifies as a good murder mystery, and an interesting projection of what might happen with the Daesh.
ReplyDeleteA good murder mystery must have the reader unable to see who was the murderer, until the Great Detective explains, and then it's obvious who it was. One of the popular murder mystery writers said she starts by picking a murderer. Every clue makes it clear that he or she is the only one who could possibly be the murderer, everyone else is clearly eliminated. Then she randomly selects any other character to be named as the real murderer by the Great Detective at the denouement. Doesn't qualify as a good murder mystery. This novella does.
Great work. I wish you could get it into something like Ellery Queen.
MichaelWme
I've been thinking, and this story seems to be redolent of the third Poirot novel, about Roger Akroyd. Radically different milieu, of course.
ReplyDeleteOh yes. I liked that book. It was one of the inspirations for this story.
ReplyDeleteOf course, the story is basically about what an ISIStan might look like if - or, as is becoming likely, when - it's set up and has to deal with existence as a nation with all the problems that come along with that. I usually use my detective stories as a framework for looking at other things.