‘Deliverance’ by Saima Mir

Published by Point Blank,
2 July 2026. 
ISBN 978-1-83643-189-3 (PB)

Jia Kahn is the unflappable head of the Kahn family. Helped by close family members, brother Benjamin and Cousin Idris and the network of women she has incorporated into the business.  Jia oversees a world-wide criminal enterprise from the Yorkshire Town where she was born.  Having rivals killed and supervising the acquisition and transfer of massive amounts of additive drugs has become second nature to her.  However, pregnant with her third child, Jia now wishes to legitimise her empire and to continue to support her work for poor Muslims, particularly the women, who are despised and maltreated by the males in their families.  The acquisition of the Reco mine in Peshawar, currently controlled by a British company, will go a long way to achieve Jia’s aims. The mine is unbelievably rich in copper and gold and will hopefully provide funds for her to leave the criminal world and still continue to do the social work she yearns to support. 

Unfortunately, whilst other crooks have acknowledged Jia’s place at the top of the criminal hierarchy, one man, Yanick Kaplan has flatly refused to do so.  Yanick wants the Reco mine that Jia has her eyes on. The situation becomes serious when the mine owner’s daughter is kidnapped along with five other girls.  It gets worse when two of the British troops attempting to rescue the girls are also taken hostage. Advocates for the British government ask Jia for help. The showdown comes in New York when Jia is staying with Adam Diaz, a barrister friend and admirer. 

Saima Mir writes with a compellingly authentic voice. Somehow, she manages to blend brutality and care for her family and others less fortunate than herself in a manner that sounds completely natural. Jia Khan is a remarkable woman, warm and generous one minute, ruthless the next. She has no illusions about the prejudice that many have towards her race and Muslim religion and doesn’t hesitate to put others right when appropriate. She loves her two sons Ahad and Lirian, though her attitude towards her husband Elyas, is sometimes ambivalent. Elyas is an investigative journalist whose love for Jia ensures that he turns a blind eye to her activities. 

Deliverance is the last book in the Kahn Trilogy. It can easily be read on its own, but I wish I had read The Kahn and Vengeance, the two previous books, first. They would have provided more of Jia’s complex background and a greater understanding of the motivations and the internal and external struggles of Jia and her family. Her relationship with her father, murdered in a previous part of the trilogy, was clearly very important, as was her early career as a barrister and the fact that her father’s first marriage had produced an elder sister whom Jia finally meets properly in Deliverance. Whether you read just one book, or all three, you are in for a treat.
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Reviewer Angela Crowther 

Saima Mir is an award-winning journalist and writer. She has written for The Guardian, The Times, The Independent and The Daily Telegraph, and worked for the BBC.Her work appeared in the anthology, It’s Not About the Burqa in 2019, and The Best Most Awful Job in 2020. Her novel The Khan is being published by Point Blank. The Khan has been optioned by BBC Studios.Saima is a recipient of The Commonwealth Broadcast Association World View Award, and The K Blundell Trust Award. Saima’s work has been longlisted for The SI Leeds Literary Prize, and The Bath Novel Award. 

Angela Crowther is a retired scientist.  She has published many scientific papers but, as yet, no crime fiction.  In her spare time Angela belongs to a Handbell Ringing group, goes country dancing and enjoys listening to music, particularly the operas of Verdi and Wagner.