City of Destruction: The gripping and unputdownable new Malabar House mystery
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By Vaseem Khan
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1 review
‘Vaseem Khan writes with charm and wit, and an eye for detail that transports the reader entirely. I couldn’t love this series more’ CHRIS WHITAKER
‘Historical fiction at its finest’ MAIL ON SUNDAY
From the award-winning author of MIDNIGHT AT MALABAR HOUSE and THE LOST MAN OF BOMBAY comes a brilliant new mystery featuring the inimitable Persis Wadia.
Bombay, 1951. A political rally ends in tragedy when India’s 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 India’s new post-Independence neighbours.
With the Malabar House team tasked to hunt down the assassin’s co-conspirators – aided by agents from Britain’s 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 country’s capital, New Delhi, a city where ancient and modern India openly clash. Meanwhile, Persis’s 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… TweetReviews
Set in Bombay in 1951, this is Book 4 of the Malabar House series. Persis Wadia (India’s first female police detective) shoots dead a gunman who is attempting to assassinate the new defence minister. Excluded from the subsequent investigation she is given another case – the burned body of a white man found on a beach. But, being Persis, she won’t accept being sidelined, and soon is heading off to New Delhi in pursuit of answers to both crimes. It's a complicated plot but just as gripping and interesting as the other books in this series. Persis is a likeable protagonist and the descriptions of post-partition India are evocative. I really enjoyed this.
Review by Mo, Oundle Crime
