Utube: Inspector Mislan and the Utube Serial Rapes by Rozlan Mohd Noor


After four rapes (video recordings of which are posted on the internet), one suicide and one bloody murder, Inspector Mislan is convinced that something more sinister is afoot; all the victims are gay.

"There's nothing to indicate that these were crimes of lust, or opportunity. The vics were meticulously selected, possibly monitored for days, weeks, even months, before they were raped." He shakes his head, "These were definitely not one-man jobs. And, I won't be surprised, if they have a list of potential vics identified."

Throughout history men have controlled 'wayward' women with terror: beatings them into submission, disfiguring their faces with acid, murdering them in the name of honour, and worse. Now, a group of fundamentalists have decided on the 'final solution' to the 'gay problem' with the ultimate hate crime.


The plot is nothing new but given the context of taboo of the matter in the society I lived in, it made for an interesting topic. I'm not really familiar with crime fiction, and what little I know the excitement from such a book stem from the "who's the culprit" suspense and the process of finding the culprit. And from that point, I say this book excel on it. And also, the writer's former police background helped made the interview scenes, crime scenes and such much more believable. Not like the incredulous everyone's sharp eyes on CSI, the detectives and police in Utube were more prone to human mistakes as well as emotion. 

The pace of the book was okay, and I pretty much enjoy the police works done here. I was curious about the supposed "corrective rape" theme, though this was not the case (you have to read the book to find out). Safe to say the writer is a noble person as none of the victims were looked upon with contempt for their sexual orientation. The theme may be sensitive but somehow the writer managed to avoid playing out the sensitivities too much. The level of professionalism displayed by the characters when dealing with the case was high since none of the characters were involved emotionally in what was going on. They had fixed on their minds that a serial rapist or rapists were on the loose, women terrorized for their sexual orientation and justice need to be upheld. There were emotion involved but not too much to disturb their focus and I quite liked this perspective.

The writer also got a good sense of humor but some scenes were unintentionally hilarious and dumb. There was one scene where the characters actually had to explain to one another that the word "gay" can be used for lesbians that was actually laughable. I mean, it was like telling your friend that the "sun is a star". But then again, it made sense considering how ignorant the society in the book was towards LGBT community especially when the police here were dealing with people who had in their stomach to do to these women what they did. It was good however that the book did not linger too much on the LGBT matter as if it was something so foreign and unbelievable, and focused instead of getting the villain to justice. 

The characters were likeable enough. I liked Sherry best, even if she was a bit of a rookie compared to Inspector Mislan. Sherry's by the book attitude totally made up for Mislan's over the top bad cop demeanor, which made the pair quite lovable. I liked their bickering as well over the case and the level of tension between them when Mislan didn't take her seriously at first. The other characters were okay, some of them were downright dumb I was wondering how the heck they became police in the first place. But overall, the supporting characters were still good and all of them complement the main characters as well as the plot. 

This book was not exactly the best I've read, but it had its own charm and that was enough to keep me entertained. I recommend this to any crime fiction enthusiasts out there.

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