Review: Philanthropists by Rozlan Mohd Noor

Synopsis: While COVID-19 rages, the killings don’t stop—a new Inspector Mislan thriller.

Eight months after the assassination attempt that nearly ended his life, Inspector Mislan Latif is back on twenty-four-hour duty with his assistant, Detective Sergeant Johan Kamaruddin, when the call comes in: double murder in a house in the police district of Sentul. The two dark-skinned men were killed identically, execution-style. In the master bedroom of the rental, in plain sight on the bed, is almost three pounds of drugs, while no identfying documents, wallets, phones, and the like are to be found. No shots were heard, or the neighbors won’t admit to hearing them, but someone called the killings in to notify the police. In the area, drugs are rampant and also foreign nationals, legal and illegal. If the vics were foreign, without papers, where do they start?

Just as Mislan and Jo begin to dig into the case, they face an unprecedented hurdle. COVID-19 is spreading in the country at an alarming rate, prompting a nationwide Movement Control Order. Pursuing their leads in spite of the new restrictions, the investigators come into contact with members of the underworld and the refugee community, before realizing that the real culprits may be closer than they think.

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The sixth in the Inspector Mislan series, and in this instance it is not only criminals that the team have to contend with but Covid and all its implications. Mislan and his team investigate a double homicide, but as the investigation progresses, links to others are noted. Their investigations come full circle, much to their surprise and the outcome is not what is anticipated.

Noor brings all his knowledge from his own career in the police force to create well rounded characters and scenes that the reader will easily find themselves immersed. I am really enjoying this series and cannot wait for the next one!

Review: Souless by Rozlan Mohd Noor

Synopsis: Early morning in Jalan Alor, one of the city’s red-light and tourist hotspots controlled by the Triads. A junkie’s scream of horror and the commotion that follows brings down the police, first a patrol car, and then, after what the officers see, Inspector Mislan and Detective Sergeant Johan from Special Investigations. The body in the duffle bag had been dumped in a back alley. The junkie who found the bag thought he’d hit the jackpot. The rats probably thought the same. But it was acid that took the young woman’s face and burned the flesh on her fingers, and something unknown caused the marks on her skin of what appears to be torture.With no papers, no fingerprints, no face, and a body removed from the original crime scene, Mislan must build his case and find who committed this atrocity. The woman’s body seems to have been a message. But by whom? For whom?

This unsettling case will take Inspector Mislan and his team from Kuala Lumpur to the Land of Smiles, and from a dark alley to the dark web and a place where humans are made soulless.

In this outing, Mislan and Johan find themselves up against a baffling case - a murdered girl, with no visible signs of identity. Who killed here and why.? Their investigations will lead them into the seedy world of human trafficking, where the stakes are high, and the clientele influential. These people, Mislan observes, "... are souless, living on income from sex slaves ..". As mentioned, power and influence hold sway, and we know Mislan is not one for following the rules, putting offside those that could help him and increasing the antagonisism of those that want him out of the way.

Mislan's personal life takes a back seat to this investigation - his son is away with his ex-wife, his lover, Dr Safia is becoming distant, and Mislan seems more wrapped up in the case to notice what is going on around him.

There are many loose ends that need tying up before this case can be solved by Misland nad his team - but in the process, will Mislan be one of them?

A decent follow on for this series set in Kuala Lumpur - and the setting makes a nice change from the predominance of Euro-centric crime fiction.

Review: U Tube by Rozlan Mohd Noor

Synopsis: For fans of Jo Nesbo, Ian Rankin, and Michael Connelly, the third Inspector Mislan thriller takes the inspector to a netherworld of vicious sex crimes.

In this new thriller, Mislan and his assistant, Detective Sergeant Johan, are called to the scene of an ongoing investigation by D11, the Sexual & Child Abuse Investigation Division, that involves a series of rapes of successful young women.

What immediately jumps out in the first case D11's Inspector Sherry Azlina Syed Abdullah investigates is that the attack was filmed with a videocam. The perpetrator, gloved and masked, had gained access to the victim's apartment and was there with a cameraman, standing over her, when she woke in her bedroom. When the video appears on UTube with the legend that it is her "Salvation," the shame of it drives her to suicide. The second case involving the same M.O. has left a friend of the rape victim murdered at the scene, and that brings in the team from Special Investigations.

Forced by their superiors to combine efforts, with Sherry in the lead, Mislan struggles to rein in his maverick methods. But the video of the second assault is posted and then still another rape makes the news, leading to mounting public alarm. With pressure from above to close the case quickly, the two inspectors have no choice but to find the way to be effective together in order to track the source of the posts, identify what unites the victims, and discover the trail that will lead them to the shadowy figure who calls himself the Emancipator.

This is my second "Inspector Mislan" book - the first was "21 Immortals: Inspector Mislan and the Yee Sang Murders" - see below for link to my review and the background for both that and this book (so I won't go into detail here).

Readers who in the past have focused mainly on UK and US based crime fiction, should come into the international scene with an open mind. The reader cannot assume that the UK/US version is how policing and crime works elsewhere, and that the same cultural norms apply.

Having said that, this book focuses less on the personal life of Mislan but on his interactions with his fellow officers in their pursuit of a serial rapist who uses technology to highlight their crimes and taunt the police in modern-day Malaysia. Keeping the ever open mind, this book also explores a sub-culture, one that goes against the grain of existing "cultural norms", and yet the same prejudices and attitudes are strangely not that much more different than our own when confronted by things we do not fully understand. It is a slow build, however, even as more arrests are made, the team is no closer to solving the case. And as always, there is an abundance of food (leaving the reader particularly hungry) - though consider how much time UK/US based investigators spend in the pub or getting coffee.

Noor's experiences as a serving police officer come to the fore when describing both the landscape and its peoples, as well as the inner workers of the Malaysian police force. Well worth giving this series a go!

Review >> Melisende's Library - 21 Immortals

Review: 21 Immortals by Rozlan Mohd Noor

Synopsis: Inspector Mislan and the Yee Sang Murders is an explosive debut from the quietly talented Rozlan Mohd Noor, an ex-police officer, which explains why he knows so much about police work and inside stories. This is a true Malaysian high-tech crime thriller with good cops, bad cops (and badder cops) and triad members, with insights into the workings of the local CSI, and forays into the world of hackers and their viruses, sleeper programs, trojans, ulat, spybots, hound dogs and their link to crime, including murder.

The setting is Kuala Lumpur, global city and the cultural, financial and economic centre of Malaysia.  Kuala Lumpur is one of the leading cities in the world for tourism and shopping.  Apart from its plethora of shopping complexes, Kuala Lumpur has designated numerous zones in the city to market locally manufactured products such as textiles, fabrics and handicrafts. It has a bustling entertainment district and plays host to many notable hotel chains.

The Royal Malaysian Police or Polis Diraja Malaysia (PDRM), is a (primarily) uniformed federal police force in Malaysia. The force is a centralised organisation with its headquarters are located at Bukit Aman, Kuala Lumpur. The regular RMP is also assisted by a support group of Extra Police Constables, Police Volunteer Reserves, Auxiliary Police, Police Cadets and a civilian service element.

The CID deals with the investigation, arrest and prosecution of both violent crimes such as murder, robbery, rape, etc., and less serious crimes such as theft and house-breaking. This department also specialises in investigating gambling, vice and secret societies (triads). In our story the branches we are most concerned with are: D2 – Criminal Record Registration Division, D6 – Technical Assistance Division, D7 – Gambling / Vice / Secret Societies Prevention Division, D9 – Special Investigation Division, D10 – Forensic Laboratory Division, 

Crime in Malaysia manifests in various forms, including murder, drive by killing, drug trafficking, money laundering, fraud, black marketeering, and many others. Sex trafficking in Malaysia is a significant problem.

Kuala Lumpur is pluralistic and religiously diverse. The city has many places of worship catering to the multi-religious population. Islam is practised primarily by the Malays, the Indian Muslim communities and a small number of Chinese Muslims.  Kuala Lumpur's rapid development has triggered a huge influx of low-skilled foreign workers from other Asian and Indian sub-continent nations.

Noor himself is an ex-police officer in the Malaysian police force, working as an Investigation Officer for 11 years in capital city Kuala Lumpur.  This lends a huge amount of credibility to the novel as the author is writing from personal experience. You get a real feel for the city itself and the multi-cultural population - and the repeated mentions of food made me hungry!

So, in this first Inspector Mislan mystery, Inspector Mislan Latif and Detective Sergeant Johan Kamaruddin of Special Investigations (D9), are called upon to investigate the murder of fashion magnate Robert Tham and his family. What was so special about this man to warrant such a diabolical and macabre end. As Mislan delves deeper he is no nearer to solving this, and all the while he is butting heads with the heads of other branches who want to take over his case.

The crime itself has a more modern touch as there is the involvement of computer technicians and hackers in assisting Mislan with his investigation.  I was particularly interested in the "method" used in the original crime, pulled straight from the headlines (spoiler altert - you can read more here @ Notes to 21 Immortals).

Aided by the lovely Dr Safia, Forensic Chief Chew, and Superintendent Samsiah Hassan (who has his back in these inter-departmental dust-ups), Mislan eventually reaches the conclusion - could it really have been as simple as all that??

My only criticism was that for the amount of effort put into the crime, the motive appeared weak.

I am looking forward to reading more in the series - see list of titles @ Goodreads.