The Dying Day cover art

The Dying Day

The Malabar House Series, Book 2

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The Dying Day

By: Vaseem Khan
Narrated by: Maya Saroya
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About this listen

 The second brilliant novel in the highly acclaimed Malabar House series featuring Persis Wadia, India's first female police detective.

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 . . .

Harking back to an era of darkness, this second thriller in the Malabar House series pits Persis, once again, against her peers, a changing India, and an evil of limitless intent.

Gripping, immersive, and full of Vaseem Khan's trademark wit, this is historical fiction at its finest.

(P) 2021 Hodder & Stoughton Limited©2021 Vaseem Khan Ltd Crime Thrillers Detective Fiction Historical Mystery Thriller Thriller & Suspense Women Sleuths Women's Fiction Crime Suspense

Critic Reviews

This is a crime novel for everyone; for those who love traditional mysteries there are clues, codes and ciphers, but it also had a harder edge and a post-war darkness. A brilliant second outing for Persis Wadia
The Da Vinci Code meets post-Independence India. I'd be surprised if I read a better book this year
Persis is brave, admirable, complicated and maddening, and is one of the few superlative and original characters emerging from modern literature
As this charming series continues, readers will be cheering [Persis's] successes
A thoroughly enjoyable yarn, complete with atmospheric setting, intricate puzzle-solving and much derring-do
The second in this excellent series . . . a delicious treat of a historical crime novel
Early indications are that Vaseem Khan has struck gold by setting detective novels in 1950s Bombay. And that is why this is a gem of a novel
A wonderful, pacy, literary mystery
A hugely entertaining, devilishly clever and immersive murder mystery
Vaseem Khan is at the height of his powers in The Dying Day . . . First-rate story telling from a first-rate writer
Reminiscent of some of the classics of crime fiction
All stars
Most relevant
Khan is really hitting his straps with this remarkable, wide ranging, intriguing and thoroughly engaging mystery. His central character, Persis Wadia, is a brilliant and strong-willed woman making her way in a world where all attitudes are set against her succeeding as the new India’s first woman police inspector. The Dying Day is beautifully crafted and the arc of the story impeccable. Khan builds a panoply of delightfully portrayed and believable characters. His portrayal of Persis, a 28 year old Bombay Parsi woman, and the demands of her world, including those of a well-meaning but meddling aunt is so believable that it is beggars belief that it is developed by a 50 year old British man of Subcontinental, Muslim heritage. And… the story: amazing. The premise is intriguing and the execution truly Holmesian. Not only this, but Khan brings a 21st century lens to the relationship of Britain and empire to the, then newly, partitioned Subcontinent; a relationship the heritage of which echoes even now. Read it for the characters and the story, and you’ll learn much along the way.
Maya Saroya’s narration and voicing is a tour de force in the art; carrying on her brilliant work from Midnight at Malabar House. Saroya’s casting for the narration of Khan’s Malabar House series is a true master stroke.

Brilliantly Written and Performed

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Took a few unexpected turns but stayed true to the plot. Persis is an icon.

Nice read

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Nicely written and read, but the central crime and its resolution just did not grip me.

A crime without bite

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