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Titles in this Set:

1. Midnight at Malabar House
2. The Dying Day
3. The Lost Man of Bombay
4. Death of a Lesser God
5. City of Destruction

Description:

Midnight at Malabar House
Bombay, New Years Eve, 1949

As India celebrates the arrival of a momentous new decade, Inspector Persis Wadia stands vigil in the basement of Malabar House, home to the citys most unwanted unit of police officers. Six months after joining the force she remains Indias first female police detective, mistrusted, sidelined and now consigned to the midnight shift.
And so, when the phone rings to report the murder of prominent English diplomat Sir James Herriot, the countrys most sensational case falls into her lap.

As 1950 dawns and India prepares to become the worlds largest republic, Persis, accompanied by Scotland Yard criminalist Archie Blackfinch, finds herself investigating a case that is becoming more political by the second. Navigating a country and society in turmoil, Persis, smart, stubborn and untested in the crucible of male hostility that surrounds her, must find a way to solve the murder whatever the cost.

The Dying Day
A priceless manuscript. A missing scholar. A trail of riddles.

Bombay, 1950

For over a century, one of the worlds great treasures, a six-hundred-year-old copy of Dantes The Divine Comedy, has been safely housed at Bombays Asiatic Society. But when it vanishes, together with the man charged with its care, British scholar and war hero, John Healy, the case lands on Inspector Persis Wadias desk.

Uncovering a series of complex riddles written in verse, Persis together with English forensic scientist Archie Blackfinch is soon on the trail. But then they discover the first body.

As the death toll mounts it becomes evident that someone else is also pursuing this priceless artefact and will stop at nothing to possess it . . .

The Lost Man of Bombay
Bombay, 1950
When the body of a white man is found frozen in the Himalayan foothills near Dehra Dun, he is christened the Ice Man by the national media. Who is he? How long has he been there? Why was he killed?

As Inspector Persis Wadia and Metropolitan Police criminalist Archie Blackfinch investigate the case in Bombay, they uncover a trail left behind by the enigmatic Ice Man a trail leading directly into the dark heart of conspiracy.

Meanwhile, two new murders grip the city. Is there a serial killer on the loose, targeting Europeans?

Death of a Lesser God
Can a white man receive justice in post-colonial India?
Bombay, 1950

James Whitby, sentenced to death for the murder of prominent lawyer and former Quit India activist Fareed Mazumdar, is less than two weeks from a date with the gallows. In a last-ditch attempt to save his son, Whitbys father, arch-colonialist, Charles Whitby, forces a new investigation into the killing.

The investigation leads Inspector Persis Wadia of the Bombay Police to the old colonial capital of Calcutta, where, with the help of Scotland Yard criminalist Archie Blackfinch, she uncovers a possible link to a second case, the brutal murder of an African-American G.I. during the Calcutta Killings of 1946.

How are the cases connected? If Whitby didnt murder Mazumdar, then who did? And why?

City of Destruction
Bombay, 1951. A political rally ends in tragedy when Indias first female police detective, Persis Wadia, kills a lone gunman as he attempts to assassinate the divisive new defence minister, a man calling for war with Indias new post-Independence neighbours.

With the Malabar House team tasked to hunt down the assassins co-conspirators aided by agents from Britains MI6 security service Persis is quickly relegated to the sidelines. But then she is given a second case, the burned body of an unidentified white man found on a Bombay beach. As she pursues both investigations with and without official sanction she soon finds herself headed to the countrys capital, New Delhi, a city where ancient and modern India openly clash.

Meanwhile, Persiss colleague, Scotland Yard criminalist Archie Blackfinch, lies in a hospital fighting for his life as all around him the country tears itself apart in the prelude to war