Amateur detective Kaveri Murthy returns with her most complex case yet: investigating a series of murders that take her from the bungalows of Bangalore to the mist-enshrouded mountains of Coorg.
Bangalore, 1922: Pregnant and confined to the house by her protective mother-in-law, Kaveri Murthy has resolved to take a break from detection. But when an elderly woman is murdered at night, after asking for Kaveri's help – how can she refuse? Kaveri investigates her new case, finding a trail of secrets that leads her to suspect the killer may be in Coorg.
Eager to be reunited with her husband who is working there, Kaveri sets off to Coorg, but encounters a thorny thicket of cases when she arrives. Why does a ghost leopard prowl the forests at night? And who is trying to kill Colonel Boyd, the Coffee King of Coorg? She finds suspects in every coffee bush and estate – from Boyd's surly plantation manager and security guard to the feuding brothers who own the neighbouring plantation and the many women the Coffee King has pursued and abandoned.
When two vulnerable children appeal for her help, Kaveri is drawn deeper into the case, becoming emotionally involved in finding the killer. Soon, one murder turns into two – and then a few days later into three. Now the killer has tasted blood and needs to be stopped. In this stunning new novel by an acclaimed master of the form, the Bangalore Detectives Club must find and expose a brutally intelligent killer before they strike again.
Harini Nagendra is a professor of ecology at Azim Premji University, and a well-known public speaker and writer on issues of nature and sustainability. She is internationally recognized for her scholarship on sustainability, with honors that include the 2009 Cozzarelli Prize from the US National Academy of Sciences, the 2013 Elinor Ostrom Senior Scholar award, and the 2017 Clarivate Web of Science award for interdisciplinary research in India. Her non-fiction books include Nature in the City: Bengaluru in the Past, Present and Future, and two books co-authored with Seema Mundoli – So Many Leaves, and Cities and Canopies: Trees in Indian Cities, which received the 2020 Publishing Next Awards for best English non-fiction book in India, and was featured on the 2021 Green Literature Festival’s honor list. The Bangalore Detectives Club is her first crime fiction novel. Harini lives in Bangalore with her family, in a home filled with maps. She loves trees, mysteries, and traditional recipes. For more about her work please head to www.harininagendra.com