This tale about the disappearance of a beautiful foreigner one night in Marrakesh is told by Hassan, a traditional Moroccan storyteller. Hassan's brother Mustafa is in prison for this crime, and once a year, the storyteller tries to reconstruct the evening of her disappearance for his listeners. As he weaves his tale, people in the audience contribute their memories of the evening, many of them conflicting. Was the woman blond or dark-haired? Was she modest, or did she behave like a clueless foreigner? Each bit of evidence is like a piece of mosaic tile, creating an even more complex design. Each person's testimony adds to the creation of a mythic story that will be recounted for generations. And yet on a personal level, the retelling is Hassan's method of mythologizing his brother and keeping his memory alive. VERDICT The author's first novel, The Gabriel Club, which was published in 16 countries, was also somewhat of an unsolved mystery, told with multiple threads. Steeped in the ambience of Marrakesh, this exotic metafictional tale marks Roy-Bhattacharya's U.S. debut and will appeal to readers of complex narratives by unreliable narrators. Lovers of mysteries with ambiguous endings will also enjoy this novel. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 9/1/10.]—Andrea Kempf, Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park, KS