Nilima Rao Books In Order

Publication Order of Akal Singh Books

Nilima Rao is a Fijian Indian Australian author.

She has referred to herself in life as being ‘culturally confused’. Then again, Nilima relates that she has learned that all of us are confused in some way. This has even led to her publishing writing on the topic through Australia’s Special Broadcasting Service. This was part of the SBS Emerging Writers Competition. She says that now, she ‘feels better’ about the ‘whole thing’.

Nilima is frequently writing. She also has a day job to keep the lights on and wrangles data for a living. She can also be discovered moving about the Melbourne laneways looking for a new wine bar to try out.

Nilima Rao first debuted on the literary scene with the release of her novel A Disappearance in Fiji, which first came out for readers to enjoy in 2023. It is the first in the Akal Singh series and was an Editor’s pick for one of the best books of the year in 2023 on Amazon. The author says that there are more to come!

A Disappearance in Fiji is the first fictional novel from author Nilima Rao. This is a mystery story with atmosphere and charm, revolving around an Indian police sergeant in colonial Fiji who is looking into a missing persons case.

Akal Singh is just 25 years old, living in Fiji in 1914. Lots of people would not mind being in a place like this, but what seems like a tropical paradise to others is a torment to him. He would prefer to be anywhere else than the godforsaken island, as he refers to it.

Akal had been working and living in India and Hong Kong, and his police career was going good at first. But now he’s being punished and sent back to Fiji for a professional mistake that deeply humiliated him. Now he is in a bad mood and on his own, trying to just get his work done. He also daydreams of being able to go back and return to Hong Kong.

An indentured Indian woman suddenly disappears from a sugarcane plantation and it hits the media. The newspapers in Fiji are all running headlines about kidnapping, so the inspector-general decides that it’s time to get someone on it and assigns the case to Akal Singh.

Akal is instructed to just take the investigation on as a cursory thing, something to placate the public and let the papers settle down in the meantime. Akal wants to be redeemed professionally and agrees to take on the case. However, once he starts getting into it, he becomes even more invested than he would have anticipated.

He’s been given the chance to look into a disappearance, while also coming up against the realities of the existence of the indentured workers as well as the British colonizers and their racism in this place. He also has to deal with his own thoughts regarding caste and what makes someone a person.

Akal speaks to many different people, from natives of the island to Indian indentured laborers, and white owners of plantations. All that he ends up thinking is that there is way more to this case than he originally thought. This goes way deeper than just the disappearance of one woman from a plantation.

Can Akal crack this case, or is he about to find that the power structure on Fiji means that everything is working against him? Nilima Rao weaves a masterful mystery that remains interesting and brings details of the past to life, all while bringing in great historical detail and interesting characters on a fun ride that will have you turning the pages so you can get to the end! Check out A Disappearance in Fiji to find out what happens!