Book Review: The Khan by Saima Mir

‘The Khan: I Am Justice‘ by Saima Mir revolves around a successful lawyer Jia Khan and her family. Jia is the daughter of Akbar Khan, who is the overlord of the local crime syndicate, the Jirga. Akbar Khan is a proud Pukhtun and is held in high regard by all the Jirga members. Enraged by her father’s unethical ways and the death of his brother Zan, Jia Khan left her family home a long time ago.

Jia was living a lonely life in the suburbs of London when she received an invitation to her sister Maria’s wedding. She returned to her family home to attend her sister’s wedding as she felt it was time to face her estranged family. But a day after the wedding, Akbar Khan is found murdered, and her younger brother Benyamin goes missing.

Now, it’s up to Jia Khan to take up the responsibilities of Jirga, find out her missing brother, and put a stop to the illegal activities of Andrzej Nowak, who wants to take down Jirga.

‘The Khan: I Am Justice’ is a dark crime thriller with a complex plotline. Through this book, Saima Mir has put forward the intricacies of family dynamics. The story goes darker with each chapter, and the author gradually unfolds the different shades of Jia Khan. Saima Mir has also highlighted sensitive topics like racism, drugs, gender inequality, violence, corruption, etc. The ending was unpredictable as I was not expecting it to happen.

Before reading the book, I found the blurb quite intriguing and promising. But I was utterly disappointed after finishing it. The book starts off slow and remains slow-paced until a few chapters at the end. This is the reason why I took a long time to finish the book. The Khan has a myriad of characters, and each character has their viewpoints. At times, I couldn’t even recognize the characters and why they were present in the plot. Also, I felt that some portions of the book were dragged and made the plot dull and monotonous.

All in all, I can say that ‘The Khan: I Am Justice’ was an okay one-time read for me. I would recommend this book to readers who are fond of dark crime thrillers.