Killing Honour by Bali Rai

Title: Killing Honour

Author: Bali Rai

Publisher: Corgi

Published: Autumn 2011

ISBN: 978-0552562119

Rating 5/5

Sat tells the story of how his family coped with the disappearance of his sister.  In a bid to uncover the truth Sat contacts a journalist, and life is not the same again for him. 

Sat’s family believe that his sister, Jas has run away and have disowned her because of this, believing she’s run off with a Pakistani lover after a few stories are told by her husband.  Jas is Sikh, and therefore as part of a traditional family it is forbidden to marry, or have relations outside of your culture.  Sat is the only one to believe foul play and he cannot accept the out of character circumstances which his in-laws are saying Jas left under.

This is about different cultures, clashes and honour (or lack of).  As a reader it struck me that many of these traditions seem outdated which in practice do little to protect the wives who have arranged marriages.  There were some really horrific scenes in this, it reads like a gangster type book in places where the in-laws are concerned, and left me wondering if this does still happen – which is a very scary thought.

An eye opener of a book, which covers an area I hadn’t had reason to think of until reading it.

Book synopsis:

'Honour,' I repeated, wondering how such a small word could have caused so much trouble.

When Sat's sister, Jas, is married off into the Atwal family she changes, she's quiet and distant. But Sat's too busy with his own life; his girlfriend, his friends, football . . . Then Jas disappears.

According to her new husband, she's run off with another man. Her family disown her; don't seem to care if she's ever found. But Sat doesn't believe it. Something has happened to his sister and he's determined to figure out what. But his investigations take him into dark and dangerous territory . . .

A powerful, hard-hitting teen thriller on the controversial topic of honour killing, by multi-award-winning author Bali Rai.

A manuscript of this was received in return for an honest review.