James Whitby, sentenced to death for the murder of prominent lawyer and former Quit India activist Fareed Mazumdar, is less than two weeks from a date with the gallows. In a last-ditch attempt to save his son, Whitby’s father, arch-colonialist, Charles Whitby, forces a new investigation into the killing.
The investigation leads Inspector Persis Wadia of the Bombay Police to the old colonial capital of Calcutta, where, with the help of Scotland Yard criminalist Archie Blackfinch, she uncovers a possible link to a second case, the brutal murder of an African-American G.I. during the Calcutta Killings of 1946.
How are the cases connected? If Whitby didn’t murder Mazumdar, then who did? And why?
Death of a Lesser God by Vaseem Khan is published in paperback on 14 March, 2024. It’s the fourth in his Malabar House series.
Vaseem has written a feature linked to his book, about why Kipling despised Bombay.
For more historical fiction, have a look at our round-up of almost 150 books coming out this year.
