It Can’t See You In The Dark by Feroze Engineer. Published in 2024 by the author, email: feroze.engineer86@gmail.com. Pp: 310. Price: Rs 319.
It Can’t See You In The Dark is a thriller that places you in the midst of the action from the very first page, and sets your heart racing through the suspenseful streets of Baghdad in Saddam Hussein’s tumultuous last days in 2003. The absolute power that the Husseins enjoyed and the violence unleashed on their subjects is palpable from the word go.
The cast of Iraqi characters is led by Whistler, the anonymous writer who challenges the authoritarian regime with his daily blog; a blog respected by the common Iraqi as well as the Western world. Then there is Sofia, a feisty and intense college student who happens to meet Abdul, an automobile engineer whose magical hands can fix the glitch in any kind of car. Sparks fly between the two thanks to their shared love for reading but their romance is threatened by Uday’s interest in Sofia. Through his research and imagination, Engineer brings us up close and personal with Saddam’s depraved son, Uday, leader of the dreaded Fedayeen forces, who is tasked with tracking and eliminating Whistler. However Uday, a ruthless psychopath, is vastly distracted because of his preoccupations — lusting after luscious young women, growing his zoo of wild animals, and building his collection of supercars, besides torturing and killing real or perceived enemies. One evening his roving eye falls on the unsuspecting Sofia, who succeeds in escaping his pursuit, further deepening his desire to have her at any cost. Abdul’s trusted school friend, Rafan, the plastic goods manufacturer, is another pivotal character who takes the story forward.
Feroze Engineer: gripping narrative
Meanwhile in London, we meet Ava, a skilled and principled car thief: "She only stole from assholes. Particularly assholes who were in trouble with the law.” As a child Ava had been afraid of the dark until her father cured her of this fear with the words, "If there’s something in the dark, it can’t see you either;” and those wise words give us the title of the book, It Can’t See You In The Dark. Ava, who had successfully evaded the law in the past, lands in prison when she’s arrested for stealing an Aston Martin DB4GT. In exchange for her freedom, her father’s army colleague recruits Ava as a British spy, sending her to Baghdad in the garb of a journalist. On her first day Ava encounters Abdul who is about to commit an unthinkable crime and she succeeds in saving his life. Gradually she befriends the other Iraqi characters as well. When Ava comes to know about Uday’s collection of 1,300 high-value cars, her interest in her mission is heightened. She would give anything to lay her hands on the pre-war Mercedes Benz 540k, one of only two in the world, and the Mercedes 770k Tourenwagen! The Mercedes Benz 540k had been sold to King Ghazi of Iraq in 1935 and had since come into Saddam’s possession while the 770k was acquired from the King of Jordan. In Ava’s estimate, these two rare cars were worth a staggering $ 32 million — no self-respecting car thief could ignore the possibility of possessing these cars.
Engineer makes us breathe in the fragrant pine trees along the Tigris, "the aroma of a thousand clay ovens,” and the taste of the succulent kebabs in the street markets through his vivid description of the place. Simply written with an eye for detail, Engineer brings alive the weeks before and during the American invasion of Iraq.
Will the blogger be discovered? Will Sofia be raped, tortured and fed to the lions or escape Uday’s clutches? Will Sofia and Abdul’s relationship progress? Will Ava’s cover be blown? Will Ava make off with the coveted cars? Will our Iraqi friends be shot by the Fedayeen or apprehended by the US forces? Will bombs destroy Uday’s arsenal of cars? What can’t see you in the dark? Does the hunter become the hunted? Answers to these questions are revealed to the reader as the book moves to its dramatic climax. While the fate of Saddam’s sons can be found in any book of history, the way it is woven into this story, makes the book twice as interesting.
To my mind, the book will interest readers of fiction and non-fiction equally because of its historical context. For GenZs the book may be a treat because of the fictional narrative alongside historical events set in 2003. The book will also delight car enthusiasts for the reference to select cars like the 1975 Porsche Carrera or the Ferrari Testarossa.
A student of mass media and marketing, Engineer brings his love for thrillers and his knowledge of the Middle East to craft this compelling tale. Unlike Western perspectives which often depict Muslims/Arabs as "the other,” Engineer focuses on the travails of the ordinary population on both sides of a conflict; a view that is particularly relevant in today’s divided world. This masterful debut leaves us wanting more from the talented writer.
The book is available on amazon.com (https://mybook.to/9sWT) and as a Kindle version. ZARIN VIRJI
Virji is an educator and a writer who dabbles in poetry, short stories and fiction for middle grade readers. Her reading favorites are detective stories and crime thrillers.