City of Veils - Couverture souple

Women in Saudi Arabia are expected to lead quiet lives circumscribed by Islamic law and tradition. But Katya, one of the few women in the medical examiner's office, is determined to make her work mean something.

When the body of a brutally beaten woman is found on the beach in Jeddah, the city's detectives are ready to dismiss the case as another unsolvable murder-chillingly common in a city where the veils of conservative Islam keep women as anonymous in life as the victim is in death. If this is another housemaid killed by her employer, finding the culprit will be all but impossible.

Only Katya is convinced that the victim can be identified and her killer found. She calls upon her friend Nayir for help, and soon discovers that the dead girl was a young filmmaker named Leila, whose controversial documentaries earned her many enemies.

With only the woman's clandestine footage as a guide, Katya and Nayir must confront the dark side of Jeddah that Leila struggled to expose: an underworld of prostitution, violence, exploitation, and jealously guarded secrets. Along the way, they form an unlikely alliance with an American woman whose husband has disappeared. Their growing search takes them from the city's car-clogged streets to the deadly vastness of the desert beyond.

In CITY OF VEILS , award-winning author Zoë Ferraris combines a thrilling, fast-paced mystery with a rare and intimate look into women's lives in the Middle East.

"A gripping, many times disturbing, story of murder and the search for justice in an ancient society at odds with a woman's fight for independence."―Kathleen Kent, Author of The Heretic's Daughter

"Zoë Ferraris delivers the Muslim The Da Vinci Code. It kept me up at night. I loved it!"―Ranya Idliby, Co-author of The Faith Club

"An intense and thoughtful thriller."―Kate Furnivall, Author of The Girl from Junchow

"Superb....Ferraris is one of the most important new voices in crime fiction."―Michael Koryta, Author of So Cold the River

"A fascinating, insightful, and remarkably balanced look inside a society unfamiliar to most readers."―Jenny White, Author of The Winter Thief

"Exhilarating. Ferraris masterfully captures the nuances of the Saudi culture and its women, while brilliantly exposing the conflict between tradition and desire."―Mahbod Seraji, Author of Rooftops of Tehran

"A marvelous book. Ferraris demonstrates the instinctive authority of both an elegant stylist and a born storyteller."―David Corbett, Author of Do They Know I'm Running?

"Taut and intelligent, set against a troubling backdrop of brutality, oppression and searing desert heat."―Anne Zouroudi, Author of The Messenger of Athens