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Malabar House #6
The Edge of Darkness
India, 1951. After wilfully ignoring orders, Persis Wadia, India's first female police detective, is exiled from Bombay to the wild and mountainous Naga Hills District. As India's first post-Independence election looms, and tensions rise across the country, Persis finds herself banished to the Victoria Hotel, a crumbling colonial-era relic, her career in tatters.
But when a prominent politician is murdered in his locked room at the Victoria, his head missing, she is thrust back into the fray. Is the murderer one of the foreigners staying at the hotel or an insurgent from the surrounding jungle? As the political situation threatens to explode, Persis has only days to stop a killer operating at the very edge of darkness...
The sixth rip-roaring thriller in the award-winning Malabar House series and a perfect entry point for newcomers.
But when a prominent politician is murdered in his locked room at the Victoria, his head missing, she is thrust back into the fray. Is the murderer one of the foreigners staying at the hotel or an insurgent from the surrounding jungle? As the political situation threatens to explode, Persis has only days to stop a killer operating at the very edge of darkness...
The sixth rip-roaring thriller in the award-winning Malabar House series and a perfect entry point for newcomers.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published January 22, 2026
110 people are currently reading
258 people want to read
About the author
Vaseem Khan
56 books1,029 followersVaseem Khan is the author of two award-winning crime series set in India and the upcoming Quantum of Menace, the first in a series featuring Q from the James Bond franchise. His debut, The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra, was selected by the Sunday Times as one of the 40 best crime novels published 2015-2020. In 2021, Midnight at Malabar House, the first in the Malabar House novels set in 1950s Bombay, won the CWA Historical Dagger. Vaseem was born in England, but spent a decade working in India. Vaseem is the current Chair of the UK Crime Writers Association.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
January 17, 2026
5* The Edge of Darkness - Vaseem Khan. India’s first female detective is banished to an outpost and finds herself trying to solve a politically explosive locked room mystery.
A welcome 6th outing for Persis, whose previous exploits have seen her banished to the Naga Hills, along with her superior officer. Surrounded by a fiercely proud Naga community who are seeking independence, if Persis’s posting was to keep her out of trouble, it fails miserably when a prominent man is found murdered in the same hotel that Persis is staying in. The murder, in true Agatha Christie style, appears impossible and could only have been committed by someone in the hotel.
Vaseem set standards high at the outset of this series and it has been persistently brilliant. Blending Indian history with fiction, the plotting is superb but the true glory is in the characters. Persis is front and centre here but there are cameos for all the old favourites including Archie and Sam, both back in Bombay.
This could be read as a standalone, not least because the action is set on a completely different location to the earlier books. However is this such a rich series, it’s well worth starting at the beginning.
Thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and Netgalley for an ARC.
A welcome 6th outing for Persis, whose previous exploits have seen her banished to the Naga Hills, along with her superior officer. Surrounded by a fiercely proud Naga community who are seeking independence, if Persis’s posting was to keep her out of trouble, it fails miserably when a prominent man is found murdered in the same hotel that Persis is staying in. The murder, in true Agatha Christie style, appears impossible and could only have been committed by someone in the hotel.
Vaseem set standards high at the outset of this series and it has been persistently brilliant. Blending Indian history with fiction, the plotting is superb but the true glory is in the characters. Persis is front and centre here but there are cameos for all the old favourites including Archie and Sam, both back in Bombay.
This could be read as a standalone, not least because the action is set on a completely different location to the earlier books. However is this such a rich series, it’s well worth starting at the beginning.
Thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and Netgalley for an ARC.
February 3, 2026
India's first female detective faces separatist revolutionaries
Kiran Bedi became India’s first female police officer in 1972 and distinguished herself in a 35-year career. But the Anglo-Indian mystery author Vaseem Khan instead imagined that someone like her had joined the Bombay police two decades earlier. In five suspenseful historical detective novels, he traced Persis Wadia’s trajectory through the early years of Indian independence.
Now, after a year of headlined successes and ill treatment in Bombay, Persis has been exiled to India’s tumultuous far Northeast. Assigned to the Naga Hills District of Assam Province, Persis must do her job in the face of officials who have made her unwelcome . . . amidst a violent insurrection by fierce local tribespeople who seek to carve out their own state.
Khan tells the story in The Edge of Darkness, the sixth novel in his Malabar House series.
The governor’s body is missing his head
Here she is, “banished from Bombay, sent three thousand kilometers eastwards to the very edge of the country, to lose herself in these godforsaken hills. . . The cases that she had investigated back at the Malabar House station in Bombay—beginning, just over a year ago, with the murder of a prominent English diplomat—had catapulted her to national attention, a star at the tender age of twenty-eight.”
But those headlines mean little to the powers that be in the Naga Hills. Both of the top officials—the governor and the military commander—think she is miscast as a police officer. Then the governor turns up dead in a bathtub inside a locked room in a luxury hotel. His head is missing. And Persis is the ranking investigator in the local police. To say the least, it’s a thankless job.
The principal characters in this puzzling mystery
In addition to Persis Wadia herself, a passel of other characters play significant roles in the story. These include both three other recurring characters as well as a number of those who first enter the story in The Edge of Darkness.
Recurring characrers
Superintendent Roshan Seth, who had been Persis’ boss at the Malabar House police station in Bombay. He too is an exile in the Naga Hills. He is a highly capable detective with many years of service behind him. But the new Indian leaders of the Indian Police Service had banished him to Malabar House, the graveyard for police careers. They believed him too close to the British officers who had preceded them. Seth has become a drunk and is of little help to Persis now.
Archie Blackfinch, a British criminalist who had moved to India. He is there to help the Indian Police Service build a network of forensic labs around the country. He and Persis had fallen in love at a time and place when their careers would both be ruined if the public were to learn of their relationship. In this story, Archie lies in a coma in a Bombay hospital, the victim of a political assassin whom Persis had killed in her last case in Bombay.
Sam Wadia, Persis’ cantankerous father. He owns a bookstore in Bombay and watches every customer with suspicion, convinced they steal his books. He uses a wheelchair.
Local characters
Governor Mohan Sinha is a prominent politician close to Prime Minister Nehru, who had sent him to impose order on the Naga Hills.
Colonel Hiten Shroff commands the Indian Army detachment in the hills. He is fiercely suspicious of the local people and threatens a massacre after the governor’s murder. He and almost everyone else are convinced Naga separationists had carried out the murder. Only Persis believes otherwise.
Sub-inspector James is the able local police officer who is Persis’ deputy.
The suspects
The principal suspects are five foreigners who, like Persis herself, are housed in the luxurious Victoria Hotel in Kohima, along with Governor Sinha. They include an American long resident in the Naga Hills who owns a large mining company, a young Italian woman who is a foreign newspaper correspondent, a couple who are American Baptist missionaries, and a young British man who is Mohan Sinha’s personal aide.
Combine all these characters in a single, locked-room murder mystery, and you’ve got a fascinating case. It’s a thrilling ride. And it illuminates an important chapter in India’s post-independence history.
The historical background
The early 1950s were one of the most eventful periods in India’s long and wildly colorful history. Partition and India’s declaration of independence from the British Empire had taken place only in 1947.
Now, most of the massive subcontinent is easing into acceptance of its new status under the democratic governments of Prime Ministers Liaquat Ali Khan in Pakistan and Jawaharlal Nehru in India.
As many as 10 million Hindu and Sikh refugees were adjusting to new lives inside the new borders. Nehru’s central government was struggling to buy off the rulers of the more than 500 princely states and integrate them into the fledgling nation. C
onflicts over caste and class were raging as a high-level committee led by an Untouchable politician crafted India’s 395-article constitution.
Meanwhile, Nehru’s socialist government struck out on a path to navigate between the West and the Communist Bloc. But there was even more going on.
Violent separatist movements
The remnants of the two million Indian soldiers who had served the Empire in World War II had made their way back home. There, they had amplified the cry for independence. But pockets of resistance to the new order had erupted in violence, abetted in some places by veterans of the war. And nowhere was the resistance fiercer than in the far northeast of India. There, unruly mountain tribes doggedly held out for an independent state of their own. Much of the violence centered in the Naga Hills. There, Nehru’s representatives struggled to keep order just as their British predecessors had done. It was a losing battle for a long time.
Warring tribes and linguistic diversity
Today, India’s northeast encompasses a patchwork quilt of eight states, bordering China, to Mizoram in the south, abutting Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Bhutan. The messy-looking map resembles nothing more than an American state carved up by gerrymandering. It reflects the extraordinary ethnic and linguistic diversity of the area. The center of the earlier violence has become the state of Nagaland, a tiny enclave between the much larger state of Assam and the nation of Myanmar.
Note: India recognizes 22 major, or “scheduled,” languages, but 122 are spoken by more than 10,000 people, However, there is a grand total of more than 1,500 languages and dialects in use throughout the country.
About the author
More readers know the British detective author Vaseem Khan for his gimmicky six-book series of Baby Ganesh Detective Agency novels. It’s about a retired Mumbai detective and his sidekick, a baby elephant. The five books published to date in his lesser-known Malabar House series are far better, in my opinion.
Khan was born in London in 1973 and educated at the London School of Economics. He worked for ten years as a management consultant to an Indian hotel group building environmentally-friendly hotels around the country. Since 2006, he has worked at University College London for the Department of Security and Crime Science.
Kiran Bedi became India’s first female police officer in 1972 and distinguished herself in a 35-year career. But the Anglo-Indian mystery author Vaseem Khan instead imagined that someone like her had joined the Bombay police two decades earlier. In five suspenseful historical detective novels, he traced Persis Wadia’s trajectory through the early years of Indian independence.
Now, after a year of headlined successes and ill treatment in Bombay, Persis has been exiled to India’s tumultuous far Northeast. Assigned to the Naga Hills District of Assam Province, Persis must do her job in the face of officials who have made her unwelcome . . . amidst a violent insurrection by fierce local tribespeople who seek to carve out their own state.
Khan tells the story in The Edge of Darkness, the sixth novel in his Malabar House series.
The governor’s body is missing his head
Here she is, “banished from Bombay, sent three thousand kilometers eastwards to the very edge of the country, to lose herself in these godforsaken hills. . . The cases that she had investigated back at the Malabar House station in Bombay—beginning, just over a year ago, with the murder of a prominent English diplomat—had catapulted her to national attention, a star at the tender age of twenty-eight.”
But those headlines mean little to the powers that be in the Naga Hills. Both of the top officials—the governor and the military commander—think she is miscast as a police officer. Then the governor turns up dead in a bathtub inside a locked room in a luxury hotel. His head is missing. And Persis is the ranking investigator in the local police. To say the least, it’s a thankless job.
The principal characters in this puzzling mystery
In addition to Persis Wadia herself, a passel of other characters play significant roles in the story. These include both three other recurring characters as well as a number of those who first enter the story in The Edge of Darkness.
Recurring characrers
Superintendent Roshan Seth, who had been Persis’ boss at the Malabar House police station in Bombay. He too is an exile in the Naga Hills. He is a highly capable detective with many years of service behind him. But the new Indian leaders of the Indian Police Service had banished him to Malabar House, the graveyard for police careers. They believed him too close to the British officers who had preceded them. Seth has become a drunk and is of little help to Persis now.
Archie Blackfinch, a British criminalist who had moved to India. He is there to help the Indian Police Service build a network of forensic labs around the country. He and Persis had fallen in love at a time and place when their careers would both be ruined if the public were to learn of their relationship. In this story, Archie lies in a coma in a Bombay hospital, the victim of a political assassin whom Persis had killed in her last case in Bombay.
Sam Wadia, Persis’ cantankerous father. He owns a bookstore in Bombay and watches every customer with suspicion, convinced they steal his books. He uses a wheelchair.
Local characters
Governor Mohan Sinha is a prominent politician close to Prime Minister Nehru, who had sent him to impose order on the Naga Hills.
Colonel Hiten Shroff commands the Indian Army detachment in the hills. He is fiercely suspicious of the local people and threatens a massacre after the governor’s murder. He and almost everyone else are convinced Naga separationists had carried out the murder. Only Persis believes otherwise.
Sub-inspector James is the able local police officer who is Persis’ deputy.
The suspects
The principal suspects are five foreigners who, like Persis herself, are housed in the luxurious Victoria Hotel in Kohima, along with Governor Sinha. They include an American long resident in the Naga Hills who owns a large mining company, a young Italian woman who is a foreign newspaper correspondent, a couple who are American Baptist missionaries, and a young British man who is Mohan Sinha’s personal aide.
Combine all these characters in a single, locked-room murder mystery, and you’ve got a fascinating case. It’s a thrilling ride. And it illuminates an important chapter in India’s post-independence history.
The historical background
The early 1950s were one of the most eventful periods in India’s long and wildly colorful history. Partition and India’s declaration of independence from the British Empire had taken place only in 1947.
Now, most of the massive subcontinent is easing into acceptance of its new status under the democratic governments of Prime Ministers Liaquat Ali Khan in Pakistan and Jawaharlal Nehru in India.
As many as 10 million Hindu and Sikh refugees were adjusting to new lives inside the new borders. Nehru’s central government was struggling to buy off the rulers of the more than 500 princely states and integrate them into the fledgling nation. C
onflicts over caste and class were raging as a high-level committee led by an Untouchable politician crafted India’s 395-article constitution.
Meanwhile, Nehru’s socialist government struck out on a path to navigate between the West and the Communist Bloc. But there was even more going on.
Violent separatist movements
The remnants of the two million Indian soldiers who had served the Empire in World War II had made their way back home. There, they had amplified the cry for independence. But pockets of resistance to the new order had erupted in violence, abetted in some places by veterans of the war. And nowhere was the resistance fiercer than in the far northeast of India. There, unruly mountain tribes doggedly held out for an independent state of their own. Much of the violence centered in the Naga Hills. There, Nehru’s representatives struggled to keep order just as their British predecessors had done. It was a losing battle for a long time.
Warring tribes and linguistic diversity
Today, India’s northeast encompasses a patchwork quilt of eight states, bordering China, to Mizoram in the south, abutting Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Bhutan. The messy-looking map resembles nothing more than an American state carved up by gerrymandering. It reflects the extraordinary ethnic and linguistic diversity of the area. The center of the earlier violence has become the state of Nagaland, a tiny enclave between the much larger state of Assam and the nation of Myanmar.
Note: India recognizes 22 major, or “scheduled,” languages, but 122 are spoken by more than 10,000 people, However, there is a grand total of more than 1,500 languages and dialects in use throughout the country.
About the author
More readers know the British detective author Vaseem Khan for his gimmicky six-book series of Baby Ganesh Detective Agency novels. It’s about a retired Mumbai detective and his sidekick, a baby elephant. The five books published to date in his lesser-known Malabar House series are far better, in my opinion.
Khan was born in London in 1973 and educated at the London School of Economics. He worked for ten years as a management consultant to an Indian hotel group building environmentally-friendly hotels around the country. Since 2006, he has worked at University College London for the Department of Security and Crime Science.
February 2, 2026
I’ve loved all of Vaseem Khan’s Malabar House series since the very beginning, so I couldn’t wait for the 6th in this brilliant series, The Edge of Darkness. It’s a series I read in print and then listen to as an audiobook, because I enjoy it so much.
I really enjoyed this book. Inspector Persis Wadia is driven to her limits in all senses: geographically, politically, and emotionally. Banished from Bombay to the Naga Hills District in North East India, where hilltop tribes are still renowned as headhunters. In this setting, she’s been stripped of her authority and her professional progression. Seeing her response to that exile is such a pleasure.
Persis has always been defined by her refusal to bow to authority, and here that stubborn integrity is both her greatest strength and her most dangerous flaw. She is furious at being sidelined, acutely aware of how her gender and independence continue to ruffle feathers in a newly independent India that still clings to colonial hierarchies. Yet that anger sharpens her instincts. When the Region’s Governor turns up murdered in a locked room, his body mutilated in a grotesque fashion, Persis’s restless mind immediately starts worrying about the impossibilities of the crime. She notices what others dismiss, asks the questions that make men in authority bristle, and refuses to accept the convenient explanation.
The remote setting of the hotel, together with the oppressive heat, and the region’s turbulent political setting, creates an oppressive atmosphere simmering with unrest. Naga insurgents in the nearby jungle are determined to fight for their independence, and are prepared to use violence to achieve their aims. Danger surrounds Persis, but that doesn’t stop her from walking straight towards it.
With a cast of suspects who range from a political adviser, a prominent businessman, missionaries and even a journalist, to hotel guests and staff, blaming the ‘foreigners’ at the hotel where all the suspects and Persis herself are quartered, is the easy answer, and one Persis’ bosses are more than happy to accept.
Archie Blackfinch, the forensic scientist with whom she has worked closely in the past, is a background figure in this novel, as he’s out of action, back in Bombay. But Persis’ relationship with him is still one of the emotional anchors in this book. Even though he’s not with her, you can feel Archie’s influence in Persis’s methodical approach to the corpse and her respect for forensic detail. Their relationship, which was built on mutual trust, a shared intellectual curiosity, and affection, has always grounded Persis, and now it serves as a reminder of the life she’s been forced to leave behind. I loved how Khan uses that separation to underline Persis’s isolation, while still letting Archie’s voice echo in her head as she reconstructs the crime.
Persis’s dynamic with James Angami, the new constable she is paired with in the Naga Hills, is fascinating. Young, local, and navigating the tensions between community loyalty and official duty, he becomes Persis’ guide, and his admiration for her grows. Working with Angami, Persis has to confront how ‘outsider’ status works and, in the process, learns a great deal. Her nature leads her to treat this junior constable as an equal rather than a subordinate, and that opens doors that previously were closed in the face of her superiors’ blind arrogance.
Her personality, of course, keeps landing her in trouble. Persis’s refusal to defer, her tendency to act first and justify later, puts her constantly at odds with political bureaucrats more concerned with optics than justice, especially with an election looming. But that’s the beauty of Khan’s series and why I love these books. Persis Wadia doesn’t just solve puzzles; she challenges systems.
Verdict: The Edge of Darkness is rich in atmosphere, politically charged, and deeply human. It is a locked-room mystery set against the portrait of a nation trying to work out what it wants to be. This is Persis bruised, defiant, and utterly compelling.
I really enjoyed this book. Inspector Persis Wadia is driven to her limits in all senses: geographically, politically, and emotionally. Banished from Bombay to the Naga Hills District in North East India, where hilltop tribes are still renowned as headhunters. In this setting, she’s been stripped of her authority and her professional progression. Seeing her response to that exile is such a pleasure.
Persis has always been defined by her refusal to bow to authority, and here that stubborn integrity is both her greatest strength and her most dangerous flaw. She is furious at being sidelined, acutely aware of how her gender and independence continue to ruffle feathers in a newly independent India that still clings to colonial hierarchies. Yet that anger sharpens her instincts. When the Region’s Governor turns up murdered in a locked room, his body mutilated in a grotesque fashion, Persis’s restless mind immediately starts worrying about the impossibilities of the crime. She notices what others dismiss, asks the questions that make men in authority bristle, and refuses to accept the convenient explanation.
The remote setting of the hotel, together with the oppressive heat, and the region’s turbulent political setting, creates an oppressive atmosphere simmering with unrest. Naga insurgents in the nearby jungle are determined to fight for their independence, and are prepared to use violence to achieve their aims. Danger surrounds Persis, but that doesn’t stop her from walking straight towards it.
With a cast of suspects who range from a political adviser, a prominent businessman, missionaries and even a journalist, to hotel guests and staff, blaming the ‘foreigners’ at the hotel where all the suspects and Persis herself are quartered, is the easy answer, and one Persis’ bosses are more than happy to accept.
Archie Blackfinch, the forensic scientist with whom she has worked closely in the past, is a background figure in this novel, as he’s out of action, back in Bombay. But Persis’ relationship with him is still one of the emotional anchors in this book. Even though he’s not with her, you can feel Archie’s influence in Persis’s methodical approach to the corpse and her respect for forensic detail. Their relationship, which was built on mutual trust, a shared intellectual curiosity, and affection, has always grounded Persis, and now it serves as a reminder of the life she’s been forced to leave behind. I loved how Khan uses that separation to underline Persis’s isolation, while still letting Archie’s voice echo in her head as she reconstructs the crime.
Persis’s dynamic with James Angami, the new constable she is paired with in the Naga Hills, is fascinating. Young, local, and navigating the tensions between community loyalty and official duty, he becomes Persis’ guide, and his admiration for her grows. Working with Angami, Persis has to confront how ‘outsider’ status works and, in the process, learns a great deal. Her nature leads her to treat this junior constable as an equal rather than a subordinate, and that opens doors that previously were closed in the face of her superiors’ blind arrogance.
Her personality, of course, keeps landing her in trouble. Persis’s refusal to defer, her tendency to act first and justify later, puts her constantly at odds with political bureaucrats more concerned with optics than justice, especially with an election looming. But that’s the beauty of Khan’s series and why I love these books. Persis Wadia doesn’t just solve puzzles; she challenges systems.
Verdict: The Edge of Darkness is rich in atmosphere, politically charged, and deeply human. It is a locked-room mystery set against the portrait of a nation trying to work out what it wants to be. This is Persis bruised, defiant, and utterly compelling.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
The Edge of Darkness pulls you straight out of the crowded, familiar streets of 1950s Bombay, and throws you deep into Nagaland, a place as remote as it is unpredictable, perched on India’s far eastern edge. Here’s where Inspector Persis Wadia, India’s first female detective, lands after Bombay exiles her for refusing to follow orders. She doesn’t just have to solve a murder; she’s fighting for control in a world that wants nothing to do with her. The central mystery? Classic locked-room suspense. Someone’s murdered a local politician in a crumbling colonial hotel, head missing, and the tension is so thick you feel trapped alongside her. All this with national elections on the horizon, nerves frayed, politics ready to combust. Persis has to crack the case and somehow keep the region from blowing up.
Persis is a powerhouse, and this book throws her into the toughest fight of her career. She’s not someone who gives up, but Nagaland is nothing like Bombay. She’s isolated, suspected, and forced to work in a place where tribal loyalty and old wounds matter more than anything she learned as a cop back home. The hotel itself is stuffed with suspects: foreigners, local power brokers, officials. Everyone’s hiding something, and Persis has to decide fast who she can trust. She can’t count on backup, just her instinct and her stubborn refusal to let go.
Khan explores themes of exile, upheaval, and the messiness of a country trying to define itself after the British left. It’s 1951, and you can feel the scars of Partition everywhere. Nagaland’s own struggles with the central government take center stage, and it’s not just historical window dressing. You see echoes of today’s fights over self-determination and the way history itself becomes a weapon. The novel isn’t just about a murder; it’s about who gets to decide what the future looks like, and who gets trampled along the way.
Khan’s writing is sharp and immersive. Bombay felt alive in his earlier books, but Nagaland is something else; tense, unfamiliar, haunted. The Victoria Hotel isn’t just a backdrop; it’s a living piece of history, heavy with old secrets. The storytelling is a tight, classical locked-room mystery fused with geopolitical thriller elements, which is a rare and exciting blend. The attention to historical detail makes the story feel weighty and authentic. What makes this particular book unique within the Malabar House series is how it strips Persis of her familiar context, forcing her to rely purely on her wits in a situation where she has no institutional support. This shift makes the stakes feel incredibly high.
The book’s emotional impact comes from watching Persis fight for justice in a place where no one wants her there and the truth could genuinely spark violence. Her determination is inspiring, and the sheer historical and cultural depth Khan brings to the setting is arresting. My only constructive criticism is that the density of the political background, while crucial, requires the reader’s full attention, but the reward is a richly satisfying and intelligent mystery. It’s a fantastic read that not only entertains but compels you to connect this specific historical moment to the struggles for identity and justice happening in the world right now.
Persis is a powerhouse, and this book throws her into the toughest fight of her career. She’s not someone who gives up, but Nagaland is nothing like Bombay. She’s isolated, suspected, and forced to work in a place where tribal loyalty and old wounds matter more than anything she learned as a cop back home. The hotel itself is stuffed with suspects: foreigners, local power brokers, officials. Everyone’s hiding something, and Persis has to decide fast who she can trust. She can’t count on backup, just her instinct and her stubborn refusal to let go.
Khan explores themes of exile, upheaval, and the messiness of a country trying to define itself after the British left. It’s 1951, and you can feel the scars of Partition everywhere. Nagaland’s own struggles with the central government take center stage, and it’s not just historical window dressing. You see echoes of today’s fights over self-determination and the way history itself becomes a weapon. The novel isn’t just about a murder; it’s about who gets to decide what the future looks like, and who gets trampled along the way.
Khan’s writing is sharp and immersive. Bombay felt alive in his earlier books, but Nagaland is something else; tense, unfamiliar, haunted. The Victoria Hotel isn’t just a backdrop; it’s a living piece of history, heavy with old secrets. The storytelling is a tight, classical locked-room mystery fused with geopolitical thriller elements, which is a rare and exciting blend. The attention to historical detail makes the story feel weighty and authentic. What makes this particular book unique within the Malabar House series is how it strips Persis of her familiar context, forcing her to rely purely on her wits in a situation where she has no institutional support. This shift makes the stakes feel incredibly high.
The book’s emotional impact comes from watching Persis fight for justice in a place where no one wants her there and the truth could genuinely spark violence. Her determination is inspiring, and the sheer historical and cultural depth Khan brings to the setting is arresting. My only constructive criticism is that the density of the political background, while crucial, requires the reader’s full attention, but the reward is a richly satisfying and intelligent mystery. It’s a fantastic read that not only entertains but compels you to connect this specific historical moment to the struggles for identity and justice happening in the world right now.
January 25, 2026
India’s first female police inspector, Persis Wadia, has been exiled from Bombay, sent to the remote Naga Hills as punishment for her successes at work. It is a desolate place filled with tribal animosities and an armed independence movement that wants to be free of India. The Indian governor of Nagaland, Mohan Sinha, has just been murdered in his hotel suite, his head cut off and taken away, while his body is left in a blood-soaked bathtub. Moreover, the suite was empty of other people and locked from the inside, so how could anybody have committed this crime? Persis suspects that it must been either a member of the hotel staff, or one or more of the few guests, but piecing together the possibilities is an almost impossible task….The Malabar House series, of which this is the sixth, is set in early 1950s India; the books do a marvelous job of blending fictional police procedural in a historical setting that few Westerners are familiar with, so that the reader gets a history lesson while being entertained by the mystery. In the first books, Persis is a tightly wound, hot-headed and somewhat reckless woman who is trying to prove herself in the very masculine world of policing, and one of the joys of these books is seeing how she grows and learns as time passes; she’s still stubborn and reckless here, but she also takes time to think things through much more than she did earlier on. I think it’s probably necessary to begin with the first book in the series, Midnight at Malabar House, in order to make sense of everything going on in this book, but as it’s an interesting series, I don’t think that would be a problem for any reader; recommended.
January 26, 2026
This was a fascinating and convoluted tale of 1950s India that kept me guessing right to the end. Although The Edge of Darkness is book 6 in the Malabar House series, it’s the first I’d ever read. There were references to previous books in the series, but I was able to jump right in and get to know the main detective, Persis Wadia, and her world.
Persis, India’s first female police detective, has just been transferred from Bombay to the Naga region, which has a completely different ethnic, cultural, and political identity. Her first case in this new district turns out to be a beheading (!) in a locked room at the hotel where she is temporarily staying.
Things I loved about this story: the locked room mystery. The many possible suspects and motives. The descriptions of the region and its unique culture. The danger around every turn. And finally, the very convoluted but satisfying solution. The novel seemed to start slowly, establishing its cast of characters and rich setting, then picked up speed as it went. One aspect that almost had me second-guessing the author was a detail that didn’t quite ring true, but as I continued to read, it turns out there was good reason for this: the person in question was not what they seemed. I enjoyed the author’s tendency to pile one image on top of another: “[H]e asked her to dance, completely forgetting that he could dance about as well as a camel with wooden legs, one of them sawn off at the knee.” I will go back and read the previous books in this series now, and look forward to further installments in the future. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read a review copy of this book.
Persis, India’s first female police detective, has just been transferred from Bombay to the Naga region, which has a completely different ethnic, cultural, and political identity. Her first case in this new district turns out to be a beheading (!) in a locked room at the hotel where she is temporarily staying.
Things I loved about this story: the locked room mystery. The many possible suspects and motives. The descriptions of the region and its unique culture. The danger around every turn. And finally, the very convoluted but satisfying solution. The novel seemed to start slowly, establishing its cast of characters and rich setting, then picked up speed as it went. One aspect that almost had me second-guessing the author was a detail that didn’t quite ring true, but as I continued to read, it turns out there was good reason for this: the person in question was not what they seemed. I enjoyed the author’s tendency to pile one image on top of another: “[H]e asked her to dance, completely forgetting that he could dance about as well as a camel with wooden legs, one of them sawn off at the knee.” I will go back and read the previous books in this series now, and look forward to further installments in the future. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read a review copy of this book.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
This is one of my favourite police procedural series and this didn’t disappoint. Book 6 in the Malabar House Series and India's first female police detective, Persis Wadia, has been transferred from Bombay to Kohima in the Naga Hills district of India leaving her father Sam behind at his bookshop and Archie Blackfinch, a man she got close to, in a coma in hospital. This is nigh on exile for Persis and a punishment for ignoring orders. Her boss Roshan Seth has received a similar punishment. I’m fascinated by India and relish the historical aspect; the Naga desire for independence from India was something I had previously been unaware of.
Briefly, just weeks after arriving in Kohima Persis is staying in the Hotel Victoria when she is summoned by a member of staff concerned about another resident. Mohan Sinha the regions Governor is not answering his locked door. Breaking down the door Sinha’s body is found in his bath, with his head missing. A Christieesque locked room mystery with Persis identifying a cast of five suspects all of whom were in the hotel.
Certainly up there with my favourites in the series. I love Persis. She is such a strong character, not the best at people skills, and doesn’t allow herself to be manipulated by her male colleagues, although she is starting to be a little more circumspect than in the past. A good plot and I was completely fooled as to the killer, and just when I thought that was it another big revelation! A cracking read.
Briefly, just weeks after arriving in Kohima Persis is staying in the Hotel Victoria when she is summoned by a member of staff concerned about another resident. Mohan Sinha the regions Governor is not answering his locked door. Breaking down the door Sinha’s body is found in his bath, with his head missing. A Christieesque locked room mystery with Persis identifying a cast of five suspects all of whom were in the hotel.
Certainly up there with my favourites in the series. I love Persis. She is such a strong character, not the best at people skills, and doesn’t allow herself to be manipulated by her male colleagues, although she is starting to be a little more circumspect than in the past. A good plot and I was completely fooled as to the killer, and just when I thought that was it another big revelation! A cracking read.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
This has long been one of my favourite series. This time Persis has been sent off to Kohima and the Naga district. A place being fought over. When a man is murdered in his hotel room a locked room mystery begins.
The brilliant thing with Vaseems books is the authenticy of the culture, set back in 1951, the heat, the descriptions of place all really set a scene. I love the little random details like a chicken sitting on a desk. I know that there is truth behind the fiction and have learnt far more about India and its history this way.
The action really builds and flips between a few different storylines that lead to a brilliant reveal. I had absolutely no hint of who the killer was, and even then the reveals weren't over. A great ending, especially for long term fans of the series. Makes me long for the next book even sooner.
My only minor criticism would be the occasional use of fancy words when they weren't needed. Seemed unnecessary and a jolt from the flow. Im not sure if that was Vaseem or the edits, but it grated a few times.
The brilliant thing with Vaseems books is the authenticy of the culture, set back in 1951, the heat, the descriptions of place all really set a scene. I love the little random details like a chicken sitting on a desk. I know that there is truth behind the fiction and have learnt far more about India and its history this way.
The action really builds and flips between a few different storylines that lead to a brilliant reveal. I had absolutely no hint of who the killer was, and even then the reveals weren't over. A great ending, especially for long term fans of the series. Makes me long for the next book even sooner.
My only minor criticism would be the occasional use of fancy words when they weren't needed. Seemed unnecessary and a jolt from the flow. Im not sure if that was Vaseem or the edits, but it grated a few times.
January 26, 2026
After causing too much trouble at the Malabar House station, Persis Wadia and her boss have been sent to the far northern frontier province of Nagaland. Persis is staying at a local hotel alongside a disparate group including a prominent local politician who is found dead in a locked room, minus his head. Given that the local Naga people were against him and are known as headhunters, the powers that be want this wrapped up quickly as a local terrorist act. However Persis finds that there may a connection to another crime many years ago.
The Malabar House novels are an excellent series and this is the first to really go beyond the city and explore the wider implications of independence on different areas of India. As ever the plot is clever and exciting, linking history with action, and Persis is an engaging character. There's a lot of 'close scrapes and action but also lots of political commentary which makes it rise above other novels.
The Malabar House novels are an excellent series and this is the first to really go beyond the city and explore the wider implications of independence on different areas of India. As ever the plot is clever and exciting, linking history with action, and Persis is an engaging character. There's a lot of 'close scrapes and action but also lots of political commentary which makes it rise above other novels.
December 11, 2025
It's 1951 and Persis Wadia has been banished to the far reaches of India.
She's been there a couple of months when an eminent politician staying at the same hotel as her is found dead. Not only dead, but decapitated and in a locked room.
It's down to Persis and her sub inspector James to solve the mystery. The local militia want the blame to be in on the insurgents as this would give them an excuse to traipse into the jungles and kill anyone who gets in their way.
Persis is not so sure that this is the case and digs into the past to find clues.
Putting her life in danger several times, she finds that most of the suspects have reasons to want the man dead and the puzzle gets more blurred.
Could an old photograph be the key?
An interesting read not only for the mystery but for the history surrounding the events of the turbulent time in India's past.
She's been there a couple of months when an eminent politician staying at the same hotel as her is found dead. Not only dead, but decapitated and in a locked room.
It's down to Persis and her sub inspector James to solve the mystery. The local militia want the blame to be in on the insurgents as this would give them an excuse to traipse into the jungles and kill anyone who gets in their way.
Persis is not so sure that this is the case and digs into the past to find clues.
Putting her life in danger several times, she finds that most of the suspects have reasons to want the man dead and the puzzle gets more blurred.
Could an old photograph be the key?
An interesting read not only for the mystery but for the history surrounding the events of the turbulent time in India's past.
January 23, 2026
This is a welcome return to the continued adventures of Persis Wadia, India’s first female detective.
Persis has been banished from Bombay & sent to the wild & mountainous Naga Hills district. She is billeted at the Hotel Victoria, a relic from a colonial past, when the murder of a prominent political leader is committed there. This thrusts Persis into a case that requires careful handling. She must try & prevent this untamed landscape from becoming a blood bath between the local Naga people who are pressing for independence & the central government using all its power to prevent such an eventuality.
This is a tense thriller weaving fact & fiction to create a vivid action filled story. A great addition to the series.
Persis has been banished from Bombay & sent to the wild & mountainous Naga Hills district. She is billeted at the Hotel Victoria, a relic from a colonial past, when the murder of a prominent political leader is committed there. This thrusts Persis into a case that requires careful handling. She must try & prevent this untamed landscape from becoming a blood bath between the local Naga people who are pressing for independence & the central government using all its power to prevent such an eventuality.
This is a tense thriller weaving fact & fiction to create a vivid action filled story. A great addition to the series.
January 14, 2026
4.5 stars rounded up. As always, an intricate plot with nuanced characters, and a hefty dollop of history and politics in 1950s India. Here Persis has been banished from Malabar House (itself a kind of banishment), to the Indian boonies, and has to solve the murder of a prominent politician in a locked room of the hotel where she is staying. There’s tension and twists and turns, and although I didn’t always follow the history and politics, I think that fault lies with me rather than the book.
I received a free ARC copy of this via NetGalley and the publishers in return for an unbiased review.
I received a free ARC copy of this via NetGalley and the publishers in return for an unbiased review.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
The Edge of Darkness is the sixth book in the excellent Malabar House series.
Our police inspector heroine Persis has been exiled to far-flung Nagaland with her boss, Roshan Seth, leaving all of her loved ones back in Bombay. Persis is staying in an old fashioned hotel and is on the spot when a fellow guest is discovered decapitated in his bath. Why was he killed and where is his head? How was his death linked to the historical unrest in the region and the Naga people's quest for self-determination?
A fantastic continuation to the series, I can't wait to find out what happens next. Long live Persis!
Our police inspector heroine Persis has been exiled to far-flung Nagaland with her boss, Roshan Seth, leaving all of her loved ones back in Bombay. Persis is staying in an old fashioned hotel and is on the spot when a fellow guest is discovered decapitated in his bath. Why was he killed and where is his head? How was his death linked to the historical unrest in the region and the Naga people's quest for self-determination?
A fantastic continuation to the series, I can't wait to find out what happens next. Long live Persis!
January 1, 2026
When is a Malabar House novel not a Malabar House novel? Well, right now as, technically, in The Edge Of Darkness, Vaseem Khan's brilliant protagonist no longer works at Malabar House. Following her last, rather harrowing investigation, Persis Wadia has found herself on the outside of Malabar House, and sent to a kind of operational exile in North Eastern India's Naga Hills District, along with her boss. No mean feat considering Malabar House was considered to be the dumping ground for Police Officers who had fallen out of favour. Away from family, friends and, more importantly for Peris, Archie Blackfinch, her life is now relatively routine - all oppressive heat, minor infractions and capuchin monkeys. At least until a prominent local politician gets murdered in a very dramatic and grotesque fashion. That doesn't change the heat or the monkey situation, but it does mean Persis's life becomes anything but routine, and anything but safe.
What a return for this truly excellent series. A locked room mystery of the finest order, but which still manages to bring so much of the regional and historical context for 1950's India that, for me, has been one of the key draws of this series. Well, that and the characters, and Persis Wadia is one of the most fascinating, and satisfying characters I have read about in recent years. Determined and very principled, these are the very traits that have seen her transferred away from Bombay to Nagaland and that will either help her to succeed in her investigation, or end her career, and possibly her life, miles from her family. It is so far out of her comfort zone, and the way in which the author has depicted her struggles in a region that doesn't want her there, and where the impacts of post partition life are so heavily imprinted on everyday life, adds real tension and that typical air of authenticity to the story.
I really like what Vaseem Khan has done here. Yes, Persis has travelled out of Bombay before, but never as a permanent move, and always with the team of Malabar House behind her. Mostly. And due to the tribal nature of the region, and the murder, it is not just the usual political challenges that she has to overcome. In place of Blackfinch, Persis has to rely on a partner she barely knows, James Angami, and trust and friendship are two things that she does not give lightly. Given the remote nature of the hotel setting, the fact that the murder took place in impossible circumstances, a cast of suspects which range from political aides and local businessmen, to hotel guests and staff, missionaries and even tribal insurgents, the amount of conflict within the pages is vast, and you can feel that pulse of danger in every step Persis makes.
Vaseem Khan has a brilliant way of taking the story beyond just the murders. Over the course of the series, he has explored the post colonial situation in Bombay beyond, and using this book to explore the wider geopolitical context of the country in particular the Assam region, was fascinating. Having no real knowledge of this period of history, I love that I am getting not just a brilliantly plotted murder mystery, but also enlightenment over India's diverse national heritage. There are certain practices in the book which seem impossible but which, at the time the book is set, would have been commonplace. To a modern mindset, it is hard to digest, and it just highlights the way in which 'modern' India was moving swiftly away from the past.
Whether this was the key motivation for murder or not, given that the victim is the Region's centrally appointed Governor, you need to read to find out. Needless to say, the book didn't go quite where I was expecting it, and I most definitely didn't guess the full extent of what had happened, even if I was suspicious of one or more of the characters. It is a book packed with danger, misdirection and mystery, and I loved every minute of it. The ending made me smile, for reasons that fans of the books will understand. Another winner. Most definitely recommended.
What a return for this truly excellent series. A locked room mystery of the finest order, but which still manages to bring so much of the regional and historical context for 1950's India that, for me, has been one of the key draws of this series. Well, that and the characters, and Persis Wadia is one of the most fascinating, and satisfying characters I have read about in recent years. Determined and very principled, these are the very traits that have seen her transferred away from Bombay to Nagaland and that will either help her to succeed in her investigation, or end her career, and possibly her life, miles from her family. It is so far out of her comfort zone, and the way in which the author has depicted her struggles in a region that doesn't want her there, and where the impacts of post partition life are so heavily imprinted on everyday life, adds real tension and that typical air of authenticity to the story.
I really like what Vaseem Khan has done here. Yes, Persis has travelled out of Bombay before, but never as a permanent move, and always with the team of Malabar House behind her. Mostly. And due to the tribal nature of the region, and the murder, it is not just the usual political challenges that she has to overcome. In place of Blackfinch, Persis has to rely on a partner she barely knows, James Angami, and trust and friendship are two things that she does not give lightly. Given the remote nature of the hotel setting, the fact that the murder took place in impossible circumstances, a cast of suspects which range from political aides and local businessmen, to hotel guests and staff, missionaries and even tribal insurgents, the amount of conflict within the pages is vast, and you can feel that pulse of danger in every step Persis makes.
Vaseem Khan has a brilliant way of taking the story beyond just the murders. Over the course of the series, he has explored the post colonial situation in Bombay beyond, and using this book to explore the wider geopolitical context of the country in particular the Assam region, was fascinating. Having no real knowledge of this period of history, I love that I am getting not just a brilliantly plotted murder mystery, but also enlightenment over India's diverse national heritage. There are certain practices in the book which seem impossible but which, at the time the book is set, would have been commonplace. To a modern mindset, it is hard to digest, and it just highlights the way in which 'modern' India was moving swiftly away from the past.
Whether this was the key motivation for murder or not, given that the victim is the Region's centrally appointed Governor, you need to read to find out. Needless to say, the book didn't go quite where I was expecting it, and I most definitely didn't guess the full extent of what had happened, even if I was suspicious of one or more of the characters. It is a book packed with danger, misdirection and mystery, and I loved every minute of it. The ending made me smile, for reasons that fans of the books will understand. Another winner. Most definitely recommended.
January 25, 2026
Excellent mystery/historical fiction. This series just gets better and better with each book.
January 25, 2026
Fascinating closed door murder mystery
As always, a jolly good read. Khan is a master story teller. And it was an added bonus to explore a different region of India
As always, a jolly good read. Khan is a master story teller. And it was an added bonus to explore a different region of India
January 27, 2026
AHHHHHHHH the wait was sooooo worth it. the ending has me raging but BOOK SEVEN inbound 😭
January 26, 2026
I’ve read every book in this series and many of the books in the series have been excellent but this possibly is the best! All are wonderful, informative and full of insights into Indian history and heritage.
I thought this book the most balanced so far. The central character is still the strong bolshie person from previous books but she has soften a touch and become a little more reflective and realistic.
The departure from Mumbai/Bombay to a little known region of India was fascinating but again it’s the storytelling that makes these books!!
Procedural crime in the wrong hands can be so dull, at times. But there is nothing dull here - it’s full of wonderful characters and for me, I was yet again engaged and transported to India, from the very start!!
The sad part - waiting for the next one!!
I thought this book the most balanced so far. The central character is still the strong bolshie person from previous books but she has soften a touch and become a little more reflective and realistic.
The departure from Mumbai/Bombay to a little known region of India was fascinating but again it’s the storytelling that makes these books!!
Procedural crime in the wrong hands can be so dull, at times. But there is nothing dull here - it’s full of wonderful characters and for me, I was yet again engaged and transported to India, from the very start!!
The sad part - waiting for the next one!!
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