Short Synopsis
A riveting literary mystery that reveals the shrouded world of women in modern-day Saudi Arabia, from prizewinning author Zoe Ferraris.

Full Synopsis
When the body of a brutally beaten woman is found on the beach in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Detective Osama Ibrahim dreads investigating another unsolvable murder—chillingly common in a city where the veils of conservative Islam keep women as anonymous in life as the victim is in death.

But Katya, one of the few females in the coroner's office, is determined to identify the woman and find her killer. Aided by her friend Nayir, she soon discovers that the victim was a young, controversial filmmaker named Leila. Was it Leila's connection to an incendiary Koranic scholar or a missing American man that got her killed?

City of Veils combines a suspenseful and tightly woven mystery with an intimate and nuanced portrait of women's lives in the Middle East.

"[Ferraris'] novel...feels fresh, thanks to her ability to bring her idiosyncratic characters and extreme setting to life, in vivid and taut prose. Her description of Miriam being buried in her car in a sandstorm is so real and awful, you can practically feel the grit filling your eyes and ears." ---San Francisco Chronicle

"Stellar.... A searing portrait of the religious and cultural veils that separate Muslim women from the modern world." ---Publishers Weekly Starred Review

"A suspenseful mystery and a sobering portrait of the lives of Muslim women. Recommend this potent thriller as book-club reading." ---Booklist Starred Review

"A vividly depicted horrific desert sandstorm lifts this [book] above the pedestrian.... This shines as a revealing portrayal of Saudi culture." ---Library Journal

"An adroitly plotted, fast-paced mystery." ---Boston Globe

Publishers Weekly Review

Booklist Review