presented by FIRES (FEZANA Information Research Education System)

Murder in Old Bombay
by Nev March
St. Martin’s Publishing Group, 2020
(available at amazon.com, Barnes & Noble)

The author Nev March is Nawaz Merchant, FEZANA co-chair of Funds and Finance Committee. Leaving a long career in business analysis in 2015, Nawaz returned to her passion, writing fiction. She is a member of the Mystery Writers of America and the Hunterdon County Library Write-Group, and lives with her husband and two sons in New Jersey.

Nev March won the Mystery Writers of America/Minotaur Books First Novel Award with MURDER IN OLD BOMBAY.  A grand and an amazing tale of a British Raj-era veteran faced with a score of mysteries—about his society, his nation, and himself—leading him into a fraught and painful Search for answers.

Captain Jim Agnihotri, an officer of mixed Indian and British parentage, leaves the army after barely surviving a massacre in Afghanistan; the year is 1891, and Jim, in need for a new start but still seeking facts that will give him closure on his own trauma hears of the strange deaths of two Parsi women in Bombay, who either fell or were thrown from a clock tower. Jim introduces himself to Adi Framji, the cousin of one woman and the widower of the other, and promises to find out who could have done this. In the process, he becomes a member of Adi’s household, enjoying the hospitality of Adi’s parents, and the attention of his beautiful sister Diana.

Jim’s discoveries about the death of the women point to dangerous revelations about another Indian family ruling a principality where the reach of the British Raj does not extend, and his relationship with Diana becomes dangerous as well. Jim’s quest for the truth will take him from luxurious galas to dirt roads choked with refugees, and from Bombay’s busy docks to India’s mountains, where the British army calls upon him for one last mission. An astounding novel rich with intrigue, romance, and momentous history, this book presents to readers the award-winning talent of a fresh new author, one that you will want to see again.

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FEZANA Information, Research and Education System (FIRES) is a centralized collection of books, manuscripts, literature, magazines, and scholarly research materials in print and electronic form, primarily pertaining to Zarathushti faith, culture, and history.

FIRES was established in 2010, and is housed and managed by the Zoroastrian Association of Houston (ZAH) Library. It is accessible by all FEZANA Associations and individuals.

www.fires-fezana.org