When sixteen-year-old Nouf ash-Shrawi is found dead in the desert outside Jeddah, desert guide Nayir ash-Sharqi is sad but not surprised. It takes only hours for a grown man to die in the sands; why would a city-bred girl fare any better? But when Nayir arrives at the medical examiner's office to transport Nouf 's body home, it's apparent to both Nayir and Katya Hijazi, the lab technician assigned to handle female corpses, that Nouf's death was no accident. Feeling duty-bound by his friendship with Nouf's brother to unmask the killer, Nayir quietly begins gathering clues and questioning possible witnesses. There's just one catch: Saudi Arabian society is strictly segregated along gender lines, meaning Nayir is forbidden from questioning most of the women in Nouf's life. Katya, however, is not. And so the pair forms an unusual alliance, their search for the truth a delicate dance around religious and cultural barriers. Finding Nouf is a fascinating novel, an intriguing whodunit set within a culture and place that even today are mysteries to most American readers.