The Last Kashmiri Rose [Paperback]

Barbara Cleverly'sNew York Timesnotable debut mystery, featuring Scotland Yard detective Joe Sandilands

Calcutta, 1922. In a land of saffron sunsets and blazing summer heat, an Englishwoman has been found dead, her wrists slit, her body floating in a bathtub of blood and water. But is it suicide or murder? The case falls to Scotland Yard inspector Joe Sandilands, who survived the horror of the Western Front and has endured six sultry months in English-ruled Calcutta. Sandilands is ordered to investigate and soon discovers that there have been other mysterious deaths, with sinister ties to the present case.

Now, as the sovereignty of Britain is in decline and an insurgent India is on the rise, Sandilands must navigate the treacherous corridors of political decorum to bring a cunning killer to justice, knowing the next victim is already marked to die.Praise forThe Last Kashmiri Rose

In her spellbinding debut mystery,The Last Kashmiri Rose, Barbara Cleverly evokes both the enchantments and the dangers of India during the convulsive later days of the Raj.
—The New York Times Book Review

Has just about everything: a fresh, beautifully realized exotic setting; a strong, confident protagonist; a poignant love story; and an exquisitely complex plot.
—The Denver Post

In an impressive debut, British author Cleverly weaves an engrossing tale of serial murder and the impending decline of the British Empire into a well-written fair-play mystery set in 1920s India.
—Publishers Weekly

The splendor, beauty and politics of the last days of the Raj come brilliantly to life inThe Last Kashmiri Rose. All the characters, Indian and British, are fully fleshed out, and Ms. Cleverly is also a dazzling plotter, with talent to rival the grand masters of the genre.
—Romantic Times
Barbara Cleverly was born lS