On the same day as I started writing this review, I heard a report on NPR of a group of Saudi women who are protesting the law in their country that women can’t drive a car and must be driven around by men or take a taxi. The subjugation of women in Saudi Arabia and other Moslem countries was the underlying theme of this novel Finding Nouf. It is a mystery of the disappearance and death of a young wealthy women and the efforts of mainly two people who are trying figure out what happened to her. It is through their eyes that we appreciate how the everyday life of women must be hidden behind the berka where her ankles should never show in public and the vail so no man but her husband or immediate family should look at her face. At the same time we see how the rules are neglected at times despite the fact that there are actually religious police who patrol the streets demanding proof of marriage between a man and women who are together in public. As the mystery of what happened to Nouf unfolds, we also appreciate the yearning of this woman and so many others of this culture to be freed from their oppression. We know about CSI NY and CSI Miami but do we have a CSI Saudi ? We do have a death, an autopsy, fingerprints, DNA, footprints (this time in the dessert aided by a expert footprint tracker) as well as some unexpected twists and turns. If the subtext of the Moslem culture were well known to us, I don’t think I would have been fascinated enough to stay turned in.