The leading character is the deftly drawn Persis Wadia, the country's first female detective. She's a wonderful creation and this is a hugely enjoyable book' ANN CLEEVES This is historical crime fiction at its sharpest, set on the brink of independence and during a dramatic period of the subcontinent's history * The Sunday Times *

Midnight at Malabar House Review Midnight at Malabar House Review

Lying in the heart of the Malabar house, there’s a tale of avarice,love, betrayal and newly founded India which is striving hard to clean the dark bloats of partition and imperialism. The leading character is the deftly drawn Persis Wadia, the country’s first female detective. She’s a wonderful creation and this is a hugely enjoyable book’ ANN CLEEVESThe second novel in the series is The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown. [12] The plot of the novel revolves around the theft of the world's most famous diamond – the Koh-i-Noor, originally mined in India before being appropriated by the British and handed to Queen Victoria during the Raj. In the novel the Crown Jewels are brought to India for a special exhibition. A daring robbery sees the Koh-i-Noor stolen and Chopra and Ganesha called in to try and recover the great diamond.

The best recent thrillers – review roundup - The Guardian The best recent thrillers – review roundup - The Guardian

After five novels and two novellas in the Baby Ganesh Agency series, I am excited to reveal that my new book is a historical crime novel set in 1950 in India. It’s called MIDNIGHT AT MALABAR HOUSE and introduces Inspector Persis Wadia of the Bombay Police, India’s first female police detective. The period is incredibly intriguing. It’s just after Indian Independence, the horrors of Partition and the assassination of Gandhi. Social and political turmoil is rife in the country. Yet Bombay remains cosmopolitan, with thousands of foreigners still in the city. Malabar House is the location of the district police force. It has served as a dead-end transfer for police officers unwanted elsewhere for a variety of reasons. This could be due to mistakes, incompetence, bad behaviour, or simply not fitting in with commanding officers. As with Khan’s established Ganesh series, however, the crime under investigation provides a basis for the author to explore wider issues, and there is plenty of material here of interest: the continuing resentment against the British Raj for withholding independence for so long; the mixture of religions and beliefs thrown into a new environment after Partition; and the development of a truly home-grown culture. And so, when the phone rings to report the murder of prominent English diplomat Sir James Herriot, the country’s most sensational case falls into her lap. A beautifully complex plot and an Agatha Christie-ish denouement make for a thoroughly satisfying read, and a burning desire to see what’s next for Persis.In 2021, the second novel Dying Day was published. Set in Bombay, 1950 again one of the world’s great treasures, a six-hundred-year-old copy of Dante’s The Divine Comedy, has been safely housed at Bombay’s Asiatic Society for over a century. 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 Wadia’s desk.

Malabar House Series by Vaseem Khan - Goodreads

Plot is interesting, keeps you hooked on to it throughout as the trauma of partition unrolls itself before the readers. Repetition seemed the only irksome thing about the book, as I felt that the author wants to stuff the information into the reader’s mind by repeating it a good ten times. Besides, the long and melodramatic stretches could have been avoided, because the book seemed good with a Bollywood touch to it (but you can’t complain as the settings of the novel screamed for the touch of the city of dreams i-e: Bombay). Outstanding. I've always been a fan of Vaseem Khan but this latest offering is something special and something new. Vaseem is totally at the height of his powers with this novel which combines a flair for history, time and place with a genius for mystery. A novel for our times * Imran Mahmood *Five teenagers set off into the woods to find their missing friend, Sadie. The police have mounted a huge search, but the friends – Abi, Sadie’s boyfriend Mason, Cora, Fash and Luke, Sadie’s twin brother – think they’re looking in the wrong place, and may well know more than they’re letting on. An intriguing mystery with a strong female protagonist who’s introvert, bookish and owns a grumpy cat (makes an ideal protagonist of course). The striking fact about her is that she’s no ordinary being, but the first woman IPS officer with some great shooting skills. This book is the first I have read by this author and is the beginning of a new series. The central character is Persis Wadia,the fictional first female police officer in the Indian Police Service. At the outset of the story, Persis is on duty on New Years Eve in 1949. She is a member of a police unit that is comprised of officers who have been consigned to the scrap heap because of previous missteps in their career. The newly appointed Persis’ misstep is her gender only. Her appointment to the IPS has been met with both prejudice and resistance. I can highly recommend ‘Evil Things’ by Katja Ivar– her heroine, Inspector Hella Mauzer, is the first woman to be accepted into Helsinki’s Homicide Unit in 1940s Finland. The review is here.