Hamid Shaikh is a small-time crook in the big city, hoping that one of his cons will lead to riches. Tax fraud, telemarketing tricks, government scams. Whatever it takes. When he's not working the phones hustling fake promises, he dreams of a move that will finally announce his arrival.

When his girlfriend Natalie Mendoza vanishes, Hamid finds himself pulled into the orbit of former Guantanamo Bay detainee turned social-media imam Abdul Mohammad. On the surface, Abdul's organization is virtuous: they are helping other detainees rehabilitate to life outside the prison. But as Hamid dives deeper into Abdul's nebulous and luxurious world, he finds a confusing mix of religious zeal and cynical self-advancement. With his connection to the imam deepening, Hamid must decide just how far into darkness he can go before losing sight of himself.

(From Dundurn)

The Hypebeast is available in April 2025.

Adnan Khan is a journalist, author and screenwriter. His debut novel, There Has to Be a Knife, was included in CBC Book's list of the best Canadian fiction of 2019, and his first feature film, Shook, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2024. He was the recipient of the 2016 RBC Taylor Prize for Emerging Writer and was a reader for the CBC Nonfiction Prize in 2017.