I used to read a lot of Malay novels. LOADS of them. When I was still a teenager, that is. I borrowed them from the library. Unfortunately, as an adult, I don’t exactly read Malay novels anymore, and I realize that’s quite a shame, because local authors are not exactly bad. They are just undermined, and people don’t exactly look up on their work because the of the language that they used to deliver their stories and ideas is not exactly something that can go global.

Anyway, I made a point to hunt down at least one Malay novel during my recent trip to Big Bad Wolf Sale preview. I want to brush up Bahasa Malaysia a little bit. It’s been quite a while since I enjoyed reading books by local authors.

I dug  this book from the Malay books section. ‘Misteri Mayat Terapung di Resort Melati’ written by Kusyi Hirdan. Now, the cover is a tad unappealing, but I bought it nevertheless. I thought it would be interesting for me to read mystery in Malay language again. And I was right. The book is interesting.

Unlike most story in mystery genre, this novel started off a tad differently. The prologue kicks off with a broken marriage where a rich husband somewhat fell out of love with his wife, and fell for his sexy secretary. Like most Malay Muslim men in his predicament, he opted for polygamy, in which, hurt his wife deeply. Heartbroken, the wife insisted on divorce instead. The parents of the man disapproved, of course. In their opinion the new woman in their son’s life is just a gold digger and merely wants his money and inheritance. He insisted on marrying the other woman, and as the consequence, the parents transferred all of their money and inheritance to their daughter in law.

The real story began twenty years later, where a young woman who is not related whatsoever with the prologue came into the picture. She just broke off with her scumbag, gigolo of a fiancé. (Yea, he was really a gigolo. He cheated on her for money with his boss, who is way older than himself). Wanting to start afresh, she quit her job, and decided to work in the secluded Resort Melati as a PR Manager instead.

That is where the real story begins to unfold. She met a lot of people who have loads of dark stories to tell, and of course, stumbled upon a dead body that’s floating in the lake during the first week of her stay in Resort Melati, which is not the first dead body found in the said resort. Things gets really interesting from there on, and she found herself getting more and more involved with the people around her, who is probably a potential murderer.

What I really like about this book that it brought out plenty of issues up. Mainly; infidelities- the cause and effect of it on people who are involved. The story flow of this book is not bad. I finished this book in just a few hours, and I was really hooked and could really sympathize with certain characters in the story.There is some part of the story is a reflection of reality. Falling out of love, falling in love with another person, the heartbreaks that plagued those who were hurt in the process, etc etc.

The author relates one character with another pretty well, I must say and while the whodunnit part is pretty obvious, the story still keeps you guessing what will happen next.

A recommended read if you like mysteries. I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars.