The murders of American Jennifer Brown and Briton Lauren Patterson, both expatriate teachers, in unrelated cases in 2012 and 2013, shocked Qatar. They also made a big impression on author Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar, inspiring her to write her latest crime novel, No Place for Women.
“Those two murders are at the heart of it,” Rajakumar says. “That speaks to how rare crime is [in the Arabian Gulf].
“Both murders happened about a year apart and just shocked everyone. People just couldn’t believe that this kind of thing could happen here.”
A South Asian-American who has lived in Doha for more than a decade, in 2013 Rajakumar published what was reportedly the first English-language novel to be set in Qatar, Love Comes Later. It won the Best Indie Book Award for Romance that year.
For No Place for Women, the action shifts to an unnamed city in the Arabian Gulf, for "practical reasons". Taking the real-life murders as the creative spark for her fictional story – Rajakumar says the book is "inspired by real events, in the Hollywood sense" – we are introduced to detective Ali, who is investigating the murder of an expatriate. When the burnt remains of a second body turn up in the desert – the same fate that befell Patterson – Ali begins to wonder whether there is a serial killer on the loose.
No Place for Women is the second novel in Rajakumar's self-published Crimes in Arabia series, which was inspired by the novelist's love of Scandinavian crime writers, including Stieg Larsson and Jo Nesbø.
“It struck me there are a lot of similarities between Scandinavia and the GCC,” she says. “You have small native populations made rich by oil wealth, a promise of utopia, and yet on the fringes of society lots of things are going on that aren’t necessarily presented in the mainstream.”
The first book in the series, The Migrant Report, published last year, explored the dark side of the life of construction labourers, while a third volume will tackle the threat of ISIL extremists.
As with any good crime-novel series, one of the key ingredients is a charismatic cast of recurring characters. In this case they include our hero, Ali, who finds himself thrust into the midst of a hidden, alien expat world beneath the surface of his own country.
One amusing key scene finds him encountering Tinder as part of his investigation, only to discover his cousin is a user of the dating app. “In every novel you have a moment where it all comes together,” says Rajakumar. “In that one scene, you get so much about this place and its peculiarity.”
No Place for Women is Rajakumar's ninth work of fiction, in addition to numerous non-fiction titles. Born in South India, she moved to the United States at the age of 11 and pursued an academic career that led her to Qatar in 2005. A prolific writer, the 37-year-old fits in writing around her work as a teacher and researcher, based at Doha's Education City, and as a mother of two.
“Right now in the world, this is a really violent time for women – you look at the Delhi rape case, or in the United States, where these young, mostly white men are getting off with very light penalties for proven rape,” she says.
“I think it all came together for me – that’s what inspired the title. Often people say, ‘Oh, the Middle East, do you feel safe? It doesn’t really seem safe for women’.
“But, on the other hand, it doesn’t feel like the world in general is a safe place for women.”
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The biog
Simon Nadim has completed 7,000 dives.
The hardest dive in the UAE is the German U-boat 110m down off the Fujairah coast.
As a child, he loved the documentaries of Jacques Cousteau
He also led a team that discovered the long-lost portion of the Ines oil tanker.
If you are interested in diving, he runs the XR Hub Dive Centre in Fujairah
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Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Brief scores:
Liverpool 3
Mane 24', Shaqiri 73', 80'
Manchester United 1
Lingard 33'
Man of the Match: Fabinho (Liverpool)
MATCH INFO
FA Cup fifth round
Chelsea v Manchester United, Monday, 11.30pm (UAE), BeIN Sports
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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The specs
Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh192,500
On sale: Now
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Film: Raid
Dir: Rajkumar Gupta
Starring: Ajay Devgn, Ileana D'cruz and Saurabh Shukla
Verdict: Three stars
Blonde
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BORDERLANDS
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis
Director: Eli Roth
Rating: 0/5
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