Moral Hazards

by Tim Martin

Overview

IN WAR RIGHT CAN GO WRONG AND SOMETIMES WRONG IS THE ONLY RIGHT THING LEFT TO DO.

Anik is a rookie human rights lawyer with a mission to make rape as a weapon of war recognized as a crime against humanity. After she is humiliated by the loss of a high-profile case against a Nazi war criminal who had been hiding out in Canada, she looks for redemption in the world's largest refugee camp, Dadaab. Against the backdrop of a devastating African civil war, women refugees provide evidence to Anik that atrocities are happening where a UN peacekeeping operation has been deployed. Together with Omar, a renegade politician, Anik embarks on a quest for justice that takes her into deadly conflict with an ambitious UN general and a vicious warlord.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781525562785
Publisher:	FriesenPress
Publication date:	05/19/2020
Pages:	354
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.79(d)

About the Author

Moral Hazards is a political thriller with a social conscience that reveals the human face and high stakes below the surface of military intervention. Author and veteran diplomat Tim Martin brings the authentic voice of experience from international conflict zones to this unflinching and heartfelt exploration of a peacekeeping operation gone bad. Tim's high-level diplomatic service includes leading Canada's civilian work in southern Afghanistan, the Kimberley Process to ban conflict diamonds and Middle East Peace negotiations. Tim has been awarded three medals for his service to Canada and the Award of Excellence in the Public Service for Canada's humanitarian assistance to Palestinian children affected by conflict.

Editorial Reviews

2020-05-08
A woman fights to protect the victims of sexual violence in the world’s largest refugee camp in Martin’s debut political thriller.

In the early 1990s, Canadian human rights lawyer Anik Belanger is on a mission to get wartime rape classified as a crime against humanity. After Anik loses her case against a former Nazi who forced her friend’s mother and other women to work as sex slaves in a concentration camp, her boss orders her to take a year off. She ends up finding a job at the world’s largest refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya, where she interviews Somali women about their treatment in the ongoing civil war. There are plenty of women who need to talk. “This woman had terrible trouble,” Anik’s translator tells her of one volunteer. “This is why she wants to participate in our ‘punishment for rapers’ program. That is what she called it.’ Anik gave a start at the name given to their work but decided not to interrupt.” She finds an ally in Omar Khalil, a former Somali politician who now runs the camp’s school. Their mission is not so easy, however, as the women in the camp are still within the reach of a Somali warlord and his Italian protector. Martin’s prose is precise and powerful throughout this novel. The realistic descriptions of violence are startling, and some moments will stick with readers long after they put down the book: “That final night at the secret prison, there were forty-three prisoners…The first man sat motionless, blinded by the flashlight beam in his eyes.” The author states outright that he wrote the novel to inform people about the realities of military intervention and its impact on vulnerable civilian populations, but the book’s didacticism never gets in the way of the story. The deftly constructed characters help to give life to these issues while also involving readers in their particular plights.

A well-crafted novel that’s both informative and dramatically satisfying.

Kirkus Reviews