Cover image of "Blackwater Falls," the debut of a series of small-town thrillers

Many of the eighty percent of Americans who live in cities are unaware of the demographic revolution underway in the vast rural stretches of our country. The Immigration Act of 1965 ushered in a flood of racial or ethnic minorities to rural America over the past half-century. They now account for about one in every four persons living outside our cities. But they’re not spread across the country. Many small towns are more evenly split between White non-Hispanic and other people. And novelist Ausma Zehanat Khan sets her new series of small-town thrillers in one such community. Blackwater Falls, Colorado, lies twenty minutes south of Denver in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. There, Muslims, Somali refugees, and Mexican-Americans account for a large share of the population. And the mix is combustible.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Introducing the investigative team

The novel Blackwater Falls introduces Inaya Rahman, a detective sergeant with the Denver Police Community Response Unit. The CRU is “about as popular with law enforcement here as police oversight had been in Chicago.” She and her colleague, Catalina Rivera Hernandez, and their boss Lieutenant Waqas (“Qas”) Seif, arrive in town to take over an investigation into the horrific murder of Razan Elkader, a young Muslim woman.

There, they enter into tense and challenging relationships with the local sheriff, the fire-eating evangelical pastor, members of a criminal motorcycle club, and leading local businesspeople. And they are alternately helped and hindered by Areesha Adams, a radical civil rights attorney. Inaya, Catalina, and Areesha will work together in the sequel and later volumes in the series. This team—a Muslim, a Chicana, and an African American—can expect to find resistance almost everywhere they go to work. But they get more than they bargain for in Blackwater Falls.

Blackwater Falls (Blackwater Falls #1) by Ausma Zehanat Khan (2022) 400 pages ★★★★★

Photo of downtown of small Colorado town, like the setting of this novel that begins a new series of small-town thrillers
View of downtown in a small Colorado town near where the fictional Blackwater Falls is located. Image: Pikes Peak Regional Attractions

A police procedural kicks off this new series of small-town thrillers

Blackwater Falls is no simple whodunit, even though many suspects emerge for Razan Elkader’s murder. It’s a police procedural. The details and the delays inevitable in any realistic depiction of a complex murder investigation drive the story. But layered above these details are the explosive dynamics of a small town. There, immigrant communities of color interact uneasily with conservative, long-established White residents. And the story succeeds on both levels. Khan adroitly depicts the arcane details of police procedure while displaying fine-tuned understanding of how racism and xenophobia poison the community. At the same time, Khan introduces us to a compelling new heroine with a dense and credible backstory, Inaya Rahman.

Welcome to Blackwater Falls. There’s clearly more in store for us in this outstanding series debut.

About the author

Photo of Ausma Zehanat Khan, author of this new series of small-town thrillers
Ausma Zehanat Khan. Image: Goodreads

Ausma Zehanat Khan is an American-Canadian author of eleven crime and fantasy novels and one nonfiction book to date. The bio on her author website reads in part, “Khan holds a Ph.D. in international human rights law with a research specialization in military intervention and war crimes in the Balkans, from Osgoode Hall Law School. She completed her LL.B. and LL.M. at the University of Ottawa, and her B.A. in English literature & sociology at the University of Toronto.

“Formerly, she served as Editor in Chief of Muslim Girl magazine. The first magazine to address a target audience of young Muslim women, Muslim Girl re-shaped the conversation about Muslim women in North America. The magazine was the subject of two documentaries, and hundreds of national and international profiles and interviews, including CNN International, Current TV, and Al Jazeera ‘Everywoman’. 

“Khan practiced immigration law in Toronto and has taught international human rights law at Northwestern University, as well as human rights and business law at York University. She is a long-time community activist and writer, and currently lives in Colorado with her husband.”

This is one of The 21 best books of 2023.

I’ve also reviewed the disappointing second book in this series, Blood Betrayal (Blackwater Falls #2) by Ausma Zehanat Khan (Two young men of color die in police shootings).

For another superb small-town thriller, see All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby (Southern noir at its eloquent best).

For perspective on the history of immigration in America, see The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics, and the Law That Kept Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants Out of America by Daniel Okrent (The racist movement that stopped immigration a century ago).

You’ll find other Good books about racism and the country’s history at Top 20 popular books for understanding American history. And you’ll find a series of other excellent crime thrillers at Karin Slaughter’s well-crafted series of Grant County thrillers.

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