Unfinished Business (Shankari Chandran, Ultimo)

The first in Miles Franklin–winning author Shankari Chandran’s Ellie Harper political thriller series, Unfinished Business mirrors the themes of the author’s past books (Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens, Safe Haven): intergenerational trauma, the violent dispossession of land and culture, and the complicity of global superpowers in state-sanctioned genocides. Respected political journalist Ameena Fernando is gunned down in broad daylight—echoing the real-life assassination of Lasantha Wickrematunge in 2009—and disaffected CIA operative Ellie Harper is dispatched to Sri Lanka to find out ‘something, but not too much’ about Fernando’s murder. Going against the wishes of her superiors, Harper becomes ensnared in a complex web of lies, deceit and state secrets as she untangles the mystery. Unfinished Business expertly evokes the hyper-surveilled metropolis of Colombo as Harper moves through morally impenetrable circles of diplomats, warlords, bureaucrats and spies. Harper herself is a fraught protagonist whose loyalties and motivations are murky—she’s not mindlessly patriotic, yet parrots US talking points whenever that nation’s hegemony is questioned. Through her, Chandran exposes the hypocrisy of the United States’ foreign policy and its intrusive interventions in the affairs of other sovereign states. Oscillating between 2005, 2007 and 2009, and taking place almost wholly in Sri Lanka, Unfinished Business is infused with dread and horror as Chandran explores the darkest depths of human cruelty and the impacts on the victims of this violence. This book will appeal to readers of Michelle de Kretser, Anuk Arudpragasam and Rajith Savanadasa.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Sonia Nair is a Melbourne-based writer and critic. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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