The Dying Day, Vaseem Khan
The Dying Day, Vaseem Khan
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The Dying Day
The Malabar House Series, Book 2

Author: Vaseem Khan

Narrator: Maya Saroya

Unabridged: 10 hr 39 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/08/2021


Synopsis

The second brilliant novel in the highly acclaimed Malabar House series featuring Persis Wadia, India's first female police detective.

A priceless manuscript. A missing scholar. A trail of riddles.

Bombay, 1950

For over a century, 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. 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.

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 . . .

Harking back to an era of darkness, this second thriller in the Malabar House series pits Persis, once again, against her peers, a changing India, and an evil of limitless intent.

Gripping, immersive, and full of Vaseem Khan's trademark wit, this is historical fiction at its finest.

(P) 2021 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

About Vaseem Khan

Vaseem Khan's acclaimed Baby Ganesh Agency crime series won the Shamus Award in the US, with The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra selected by the Sunday Times as one of the 40 best crime novels published 2015-2020, now translated into 16 languages. The first novel in the Malabar House series, Midnight at Malabar House, won the CWA Historical Dagger 2021 and was shortlisted for the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year Award. Vaseem lives in London.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Lady Clementina on July 05, 2021

My thanks to Hodder and Stoughton and NetGalley for a review copy of this book. Second in the Malabar Hall series by the author, The Dying Day is a historical mystery featuring the (fictional) first female police inspector in India Persis Wadia. Set in 1950s Bombay, we find ourselves at a time when t......more

Goodreads review by Emma on July 26, 2021

This was a gripping, intelligent mystery, even better than the first accomplished work of the series. In this book, Persia truly shines as an exceptional detective, refusing to be cowed by the misogyny and male dominant culture around her. It was also fascinating to read about WWII from an Indian pe......more

Goodreads review by Stephen on September 03, 2022

easy going read but felt though it was too slow for my liking and took ages to actually get going......more


Quotes

This is a crime novel for everyone; for those who love traditional mysteries there are clues, codes and ciphers, but it also had a harder edge and a post-war darkness. A brilliant second outing for Persis Wadia Ann Cleeves

The Da Vinci Code meets post-Independence India. I'd be surprised if I read a better book this year M.W. Craven

Persis is brave, admirable, complicated and maddening, and is one of the few superlative and original characters emerging from modern literature On-Magazine

As this charming series continues, readers will be cheering [Persis's] successes SHOTS

A thoroughly enjoyable yarn, complete with atmospheric setting, intricate puzzle-solving and much derring-do Mail on Sunday

The second in this excellent series . . . a delicious treat of a historical crime novel The Observer

Early indications are that Vaseem Khan has struck gold by setting detective novels in 1950s Bombay. And that is why this is a gem of a novel The Eastern Eye

A wonderful, pacy, literary mystery Steve Cavanagh

A hugely entertaining, devilishly clever and immersive murder mystery Antonia Hodgson

Vaseem Khan is at the height of his powers in The Dying Day . . . First-rate story telling from a first-rate writer Daily Express Books of the Year, chosen by Imran Mahmood