Book Review - BlogTwit Tour with PHILANTHROPISTS: Inspector Mislan and the Sentul Double Murder by Rozlan Mohd Noor

 

Hello everyone!

It is my turn to continue the journey for the BlogTwit Tour with PHILANTHROPISTS: Inspector Mislan and the Sentul Double Murder written by Rozlan Mohd Noor. Organized by UntitledBC and Buku Fixi.

MY APPRECIATION

My utmost appreciation goes to UntitledBC for organizing this and Buku Fixi for providing me a copy of PHILANTHROPISTS in exchange for my honest review. 

Let’s get started!

Title : PHILANTHROPISTS: Inspector Mislan and the Sentul Double Murder 

Author : Rozlan Mohd Noor

Publisher : Fixi Novo which is an imprint of Buku Fixi 

Format : Paperback and e-book 

Sources : Buku Fixi and Google Play Book

Pages : 301

Rating : 5/5 stars 

I was excited the moment UntitledBC sent out the list of reviewers and I am one of them in the list. So I purchased and read the e-book version first before the physical copy arrived. Boox is always my sweetheart!

THE SYNOPSIS

Two men are found murdered, execution-style, in a Sentul house. The first impression by the police is that the double murder is related to illegal narcotics, but then why was a stash of drugs in the house untouched? Another mystery: Why were generous anonymous donations made to charitable causes after the killings?

In navigating the case, Inspector Mislan Latif and Detective Sergeant Johan Kamaruddin of Special Investigations (D9) face an unprecedented hurdle: the imposition of the nationwide Movement Control Order (MCO). Pursuing their leads in spite of these new restrictions, the investigators come into contact with members of the underworld and the refugee community, before realizing that the real culprits might be closer than they think…

MY REVIEW

"Philanthropists" is the 6th series from Inspector Mislan Latif Series and this is my first read from Rozlan Mohd Noor's writing. Looking at the number of series, I should read the earlier 4 titles from the Inspector Mislan Latif Series (since I have finished reading Soulless a few days ago) but I can do that later. From various comments received, the series are all not related from one to another. They are standalone. I can take up more time to look for the 4 earlier series then.

The story is cool, natural and public-friendly. What I meant about "public-friendly" is, as an ordinary Malaysian citizen, I do not know the real job scope covered by the police officers or investigators during the criminal investigation process. All I knew was from my random knowledge shown in “Gerak Khas” - the Malaysian local TV Action Drama. Other than that, I imagine Mislan as Horatio Caine in CSI Miami. As an experienced person in this field, Rozlan vivified the scenario of how the Crime Investigation Team in Malaysia worked. Since imagining Horatio Caine is too much, I imagine Syafiq Kyle as Inspector Mislan instead. 

The narration is very up to date with the current situation and issues. He dedicated this book to all front-liners. As we all know, Malaysia is also battling with Covid-19. The narration loaded with momentous. Perhaps when Malaysia has fully recovered from this Covid-19, I would like to reread this book in remembrance of Malaysian and front-liners during the hard trial in Movement Control Order. Not only that, Rozlan loaded the current political situation. Quite funny for me when reading the names of the characters used. Ismail Sabri is there. Even Amir Muhammad is there too! 

Back to the storyline, the story is about the investigation of Mislan and the murder of two unidentified victims. Mislan was assigned to resolve the case. I was intrigued and could not stop thinking about the plot flows. I followed Mislan everywhere in the book and almost lost my patience. Luckily, The Superintendent Puan Samsiah is very professional and calmed me along with my reading. To me, the first 35% of my reading was slightly slow maybe due to the long difficulties of identifying the clues and because of the setting was in MCO which resulted to the limited movement of Mislan and Johan to conclude the task. My level of excitement burst when the next clue sparked. My reading geared up and the speed became fast when I entered the Forgotten Children of Kuala Lumpur Foundation's part. Wah! I am not going to give spoilers here but trust me, the book made me lost my sleeping time! You need to expect the unexpected! 

As the author of the book, Rozlan gave us the clue begins with the title of the book - "Philanthropists". What do you know about "Philanthropists"? It means one who makes an active effort to promote human welfare. All you need to understand is why the crime happened and what was the relationship between the ack of philanthropic and the murders. I was impressed with the conclusion in this book because it divides my own opinions into two judgments; between having sympathy and defending the perpetrators of crime and revenge or; go against their actions and stand by Mislan. But we should go back to the basic rules of life that the goal will never legalize the intentions. Criminals remain as criminals. We can not deny that. Whatever it is, Mislan and team have done a great job. Their job is tough.

Characters are all super cool and natural. Like I said earlier, imagining Syafiq Kyle with his assistance, acting like Horatio Caine and his assistant Eric Delco in action. With their laboratory team with all super hi-tech lab gadget. Too much of imagination, huh? LOL. Also, I feel proud when Rozlan placed Samsiah a higher rank, supervising Mislan. Not to say seeking gender equality but, thank you Rozlan for appreciating ladies as part of important roles in your book. The reading takes even faster when the storytelling goes by active conversations between characters. Overall, characters combination were all amazing.

Commenting on the little romance part between Mislan and Dr Nur Safia – Ah! Come on Rozlan? Why did you leave me at a cliff-hanger? What happened to both of them? Did he get back to Safia? Or he prefers to forget whatever happened between them and let it go? I have been following this from Soulless and still getting no clues of what happened to them. Will there be any continuance to their little romance? Arghh! I hope so!

For the writing style, Rozlan uses simple English, straight forward and easy to understand. Despite its language and verse are synonym towards the investigation terms, abbreviations and processes, it is not difficult because, in every situation, Rozlan prepared the readers with the necessary explanation in the storyline. So, I do not have to ask any Police Officers or Crime Investigators nearby, what the author was talking about. 

Honestly, I am not a fan of Crime Fiction or Detective Fiction genre, but Rozlan Mohd Noor opened me to a new interesting genre which I look forward to exploring more. Frankly speaking, "Philanthropists" does not need influencers to influence others to read it because the author himself has proven that his great masterpiece is the main reason why readers MUST read it.