The Dying Day

'Historical fiction at its finest' Mail on Sunday'Brilliant!' Ann Cleeves'Persis Wadia, denizen of India's own Slough House - Malabar House in Bombay' Alis Hawkins'Hugely entertaining, devilishly clever' Antonia Hodgson'Khan writes with charm and wit, and an eye for detail that transports the reader entirely' Chris Whitaker'Persis is a brilliant creation and this is historical fiction at its finest' Daily Mirror 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 .