Midnight at Malabar House

By Vaseem Khan,

Book cover of Midnight at Malabar House

Book description

*** WINNER OF THE CWA SAPERE BOOKS HISTORICAL DAGGER 2021, and an INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER ***

'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 best…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Midnight at Malabar House as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Nothing has transported me to another time and place so well as Khan’s book this year. I saw him at Bristol CrimeFest, a lovely and humorous man who held the attention of an entire busy room with just a few words. Khan’s charisma led me to his book, and I am so thrilled I found it. 

It is about the first female police officer in Bombay, Persis, who is called into a mystery at the turning of New Year’s Eve, 1949.

The power of Khan’s book comes in his ability to use time to create tension, the feeling it’s running…

This book has sharply etched characters and a delightfully funny voice! I love books set in Bombay, and this one does so much more than offer a deeply authentic Ambiance.

This is the first in a series, it had me eager to read the next. Bombay’s first Police officer Persis Wadia and her friend Archie Blackfinch solve a twisty mystery with a great ending.

Book cover of The Spanish Diplomat's Secret

Nev March Author Of The Spanish Diplomat's Secret

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author History lover Scriptwriter Reader Nature lover

Nev's 3 favorite reads in 2023

What is my book about?

An entertaining mystery on a 1894 trans-Atlantic steamship with an varied array of suspects, and a detective who must solve his case in six days to prevent international conflict.

Retired from the British Indian army, Captain Jim is taking his wife Diana to Liverpool from New York, when their pleasant cruise turns deadly. Just hours after meeting him, a foreign diplomat is brutally murdered onboard their ship. Captain Jim must find the killer before they dock in six days, or there could be war! Aboard the beleaguered luxury liner are a thousand suspects, but no witnesses to the locked-cabin crime.

Fortunately, his wife Diana knows her way around first-class accommodations and Gilded Age society. But something has been troubling her, too, something she won’t tell him. Together, using tricks gleaned from their favorite fictional sleuth, Sherlock Holmes, Captain Jim, and Diana must learn why one man’s life came to a murderous end.

By Nev March,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Spanish Diplomat's Secret as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In The Spanish Diplomat's Secret, award-winning author Nev March explores the vivid nineteenth-century world of the transatlantic voyage, one passenger’s secret at a time.

Captain Jim Agnihotri and his wife Lady Diana Framji are embarking to England in the summer of 1894. Jim is hopeful the cruise will help Diana open up to him. Something is troubling her, and Jim is concerned.

On their first evening, Jim meets an intriguing Spaniard, a fellow soldier with whom he finds an instant kinship. But within twenty-four hours, Don Juan Nepomuceno is murdered, his body discovered shortly after he asks rather urgently to…


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