{"id":6890,"date":"2026-02-03T06:26:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T14:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=6890"},"modified":"2026-02-03T06:26:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T14:26:18","slug":"yosha-gunasekera-the-midnight-taxi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/yosha-gunasekera-the-midnight-taxi\/","title":{"rendered":"Yosha Gunasekera: The Midnight Taxi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Debut<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This is a sparkling debut.\u00a0 The main character, Siriwathi Perera, is a New York City cab driver in the age of Uber and Lyft.\u00a0 It\u2019s a tough job but she works the late shift to keep her family afloat. As she\u2019s cruising by night court late one night, she spots two possible fares: a white, male lawyer and a woman who looks more like herself, obviously on her way home. She picks up the woman and the two of them bond as they discover they are both Sri Lankan. The woman, Amaya, is a public defender, and the quick bond the two women form is enough that Amaya presses her business card in Siri\u2019s hand before she gets out of the cab.\u00a0 Little does Siri know how much she will need it.<\/p>\n

Her next fare is a scraggly looking gentleman who wants to go to JFK, departing for Paris.\u00a0 Before he gets in the cab, Siti had noticed him carrying a long case with holes in it.\u00a0 She\u2019s puzzled by the case but readily accepts a fare that provides a quiet customer who doesn\u2019t bother her \u2013 the man quickly falls asleep.\u00a0 When they get to the airport, however, Siri can\u2019t wake him, and when she opens the door of her cab, she sees the man has been stabbed in the chest \u2013 and he\u2019s dead.<\/p>\n

All Siri can think to do is call Amaya, who appears but informs her she will surely be arrested, and this is in fact the case.\u00a0 The humiliations accompanying arrest and jail are described in detail, and by the time Siri is released, her exhausted and worried parents looking on, you\u2019ll be fully on her side.\u00a0 As she\u2019s the heroine of the novel I never thought she was guilty, and first time author Gunasekera has deftly introduced what is basically a locked room mystery, 21st century style.<\/p>\n

The women have a very short time before a grand jury assembles to decide Siri\u2019s fate, and Siri finds herself functioning as Amaya\u2019s defacto investigator.\u00a0 Though she\u2019s told each and every time not to speak, she of course does, and the investigation that follows is a very traditional one.\u00a0 It\u2019s very well done with each plot element growing organically out of the one before.\u00a0 This was the kind of book where I got halfway through and wasn\u2019t sure what was going to happen.<\/p>\n

As the story progresses, the author teases out Siri\u2019s somewhat tragic backstory but also finds the bonding of the two women and the ultimate gathering over food, at a Sri Lankan feast prepared by Siri\u2019s mother.\u00a0 Both women are incredibly appealing characters, and I also loved the look at New York and the essential nature of the service workers who make the city function.\u00a0 I loved the story and was feverishly turning pages to find out just what happens to Siri and Amaya.<\/p>\n

This book is hard to categorize.\u00a0 The details of the nonfunctioning and somewhat horrific justice system as well as the details of Siri\u2019s home life aren\u2019t cozy; but the investigative three-some that ultimately forms \u2013 bound by the cozy elements of culture and food \u2013 are more cozy, and the resolution, which could have been dark and traumatic, goes another, softer, way. Both plot and character are strong here and I very much hope there will be another book featuring Siri and Amaya. —\u00a0Robin Agnew<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Debut This is a sparkling debut.\u00a0 The main character, Siriwathi Perera, is a New York City cab driver in the age of Uber and Lyft.\u00a0 It\u2019s a tough job but she works the late shift to keep her family afloat. As she\u2019s cruising by night court late one night, she spots two possible fares: a … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[189,1218,401,238,1276,2394,2395,2392,2393],"class_list":["post-6890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-berkley","tag-debut","tag-locked-room","tag-new-york-city","tag-robin-agnew","tag-sri-lankan-culture","tag-taxi-driving","tag-the-midnight-taxi","tag-yosha-gunasekera"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6890"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6918,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6890\/revisions\/6918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}