REVIEW: Veiled Freedom by J.M. Windle

Veiled Freedom by J.M. Windle

I prefer to read light and fun romances, mysteries, the occasional horror or legal thriller/suspense book so when Veiled Freedom arrived I wasn’t too excited.

Then I started reading it. It’s good to stretch out and read about what you do not know about. While Veiled Freedom is a fiction book it has been well grounded in fact. I could taste the dust in my mouth and I’ve never been to Afghanistan. The book takes place in 2008, seven years after the American forces freed Afghanistan from the Taliban. Amy Mallory arrives in Kabul, ready to bring the Word of God to the people and to head up a relief agency. She soon discovers within hours how difficult that challenge will be. She’s forced to wear a burqua, she can’t speak the language and she’s been told she may not share the Word of God with any Afghanistan. Those are only a few of the difficulties she encounters.

Steve Wilson finds the country not the same as he left it after his tour of duty. He must work with the minister of interior and he doesn’t trust him.

Jamil appears from nowhere and asks Amy for work. She hires him, she trusts him but he is not what he seems.

The book is well written; it engrossed me in a culture and taught me things I did not know.

Here’s what the back of the book says:

Kabul, 2001 American forces have freed Afghanistan from the Taliban. Kites have returned to the skies. Women have removed their burquas. There is dancing in the streets.

Eight years later, Afghanistan is a far cry from those first images of a country freed from Taliban rule. When Special Forces veteran Steve Wilson returns to Kabul as a security chief to the minister of interior, he is disillusioned with the corruption and violence that has overtaken the country he fought to free. Relief worker Amy Mallory arrives in Afghanistan ready to change the world. She soon discovers that as a Western woman, the challenges are monumental. Afghan native Jamil returns to his homeland seeking work, but a painful past continues to haunt him.

All three are searching for truth and freedom when a suicide bombing brings them together on Kabul’s dusty streets. But what is the true source off freedom—and it’s cost?