Tag: India

The Edge of Darkness by Vaseem Khan

I have been following the exploits of Persis Wadia, India’s first female detective, since she was introduced in the first book in the series, Midnight at Malabar House. Persis is a detective with attitude and an amazing capacity for enduring and recovering from physical attacks while investigating murders. I am beginning to have serious concerns for her health especially since reading the sixth thriller in the series, The Edge of Darkness.

The inspector has been exiled from her home in Bombay to the wild and mountainous Naga Hills district for deliberately ignoring orders. Isolated from her father and her team at Malabar House, apart from her boss who arrived just before her, Persis is also grieving for her forensic scientist colleague/lover, Archie Blackfinch, who is in a coma in a Bombay hospital.

As India prepares for its first post-Independence election, tensions run high especially with the Naga people who seek self-government. For safety Persis is sent to stay in the heavily guarded Victoria Hotel – a colonial-era building which has seen much better days and has few, mostly foreign guests. Her career has nose-dived and Persis is despondent. Then a prominent politician staying in the hotel is brutally murdered in his locked room and Persis must solve the mystery before the political situation explodes…

Well if ever there was a protagonist who exposed herself to the most extreme danger, then Persis is she. How she survives is almost beyond belief. However her powers of detection and deduction, intelligence and sense of justice are never impaired. Vaseem Khan has created a character to be reckoned with. I just fear for her future!

The writing is taut and the narrative races from scene to scene, barely a breath between them. Attention to detail and the interweaving of Indian history into the narrative is second to none. If you love historical crime and a locked room scenario you’ll adore this book, which could be read as a standalone but why would you deprive yourself of the previous books.

The Edge of Darkness by Vaseem Khan is published by Hodder & Stoughton and is available in hardback, £22 from bookshops and £17.19 from Amazon . Paperback due September 2026.

The Lost Man Of Bombay by Vaseem Khan

The Lost Man of Bombay is the third in the Malabar House series set in Bombay 1950, featuring the intrepid Inspector Persis Wadia.

The discovery of the body of a white man found frozen in the foothills of near Dehra Dun plus two new murders of Europeans within days of each other grips the imagination of the city. As the first – and only – female police inspector, Persis Wadia has her work cut out for her. Not everyone is happy with the results of her research. Her investigation links the three deaths but she is missing vital clues, hindered by misogynist Inspector Oberoi, and aided by Met Police criminologist, Archie Blackfinch. As she fights the mutual attraction between her and Archie, she puts her own life on the line before resolving the mystery. 

With a deft hand, Khan recreates the world of India, post partition and British rule, in which the first female police inspector fights her own demons and prejudices. The balance of the personal and political is masterfully handled, perfectly interwoven in the intricate plot involving religious hypocrisy, family dilemmas, racial tensions and historical wrongs. If, like me, you enjoy solving clues and codes, you’ll love this series. The vibrancy of the city, the interplay of cultures and perfect characterisation make for a fascinating read.

The Lost Man of Bombay is published in hardback, paperback and ebook by Hodder & Stoughton. The previous two titles are Midnight at Malabar House – Winner of the CWA Historical Dagger 2021 – and The Dying Day.

Vaseem Khan was born in Newham but spent ten years working in India as a management consultant. As well as the Malabar House series, he is the author of the Baby Ganesh Agency series, of which the first book, The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra was a Times bestseller, translated into 15 languages.