Moghul Buffet (Soho Crime)

Rating:
Summary: Interesting but still fun look at Pakistani society...
Review: While this book is technically a mystery, it is more effective as an occasionally black comic look at modern Pakistani society and the way it interacts with westerners. The plot of the novel is rather convoluted: it follows a series of murders starting with the apparent murder of an American business man. However, this book is both much more and much less than a standard murder mystery. The plot quickly develops numerous subplots involving a mysterious woman seemingly involved with all the murders, a fundamentalist Iman, the birth of the Taliban, not to mention to complex relations between modern men and women in Pakistan's upper classes... hence the title, Moghul Buffet. The book has a little of everything.
The subplots and depth of characterizations of some of the main characters are the books best qualities. As a mystery, the story is rather convoluted and in the end not completely resolved. Some things are left only implied, and some are never really explained at all. It wasn't the best mystery I've ever read... but it was an incredibly interesting book for the way in which it examines Pakistan today, and especially the role of women in Pakistani society. The book is also fun. The author has an understated sense of humor all through her story... and yet she is always detached, also.
I should also say I was in Peshawar some 15 years ago and from what I remember the author's depiction of this place is quite accurate.... go ahead and read the book, you won't be sorry!