City of Destruction
the warm, witty and utterly addictive cozy mystery with a brilliant female sleuth
Published on 4. September 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
352 pages
978-1-3997-0769-5 (ISBN)
Description
'Vaseem Khan writes with charm and wit, and an eye for detail that transports the reader entirely. I couldn't love this series more' CHRIS WHITAKER
'Historical fiction at its finest' MAIL ON SUNDAY
From the award-winning author of MIDNIGHT AT MALABAR HOUSE and THE LOST MAN OF BOMBAY comes a brilliant new mystery featuring the inimitable Persis Wadia.
Bombay, 1951. A political rally ends in tragedy when India's first female police detective, Persis Wadia, kills a lone gunman as he attempts to assassinate the divisive new defence minister, a man calling for war with India's new post-Independence neighbours.
With the Malabar House team tasked to hunt down the assassin's co-conspirators - aided by agents from Britain's MI6 security service - Persis is quickly relegated to the sidelines. But then she is given a second case, the burned body of an unidentified white man found on a Bombay beach. As she pursues both investigations - with and without official sanction - she soon finds herself headed to the country's capital, New Delhi, a city where ancient and modern India openly clash.
Meanwhile, Persis's colleague, Scotland Yard criminalist Archie Blackfinch, lies in a hospital fighting for his life as all around him the country tears itself apart in the prelude to war...
'Historical fiction at its finest' MAIL ON SUNDAY
From the award-winning author of MIDNIGHT AT MALABAR HOUSE and THE LOST MAN OF BOMBAY comes a brilliant new mystery featuring the inimitable Persis Wadia.
Bombay, 1951. A political rally ends in tragedy when India's first female police detective, Persis Wadia, kills a lone gunman as he attempts to assassinate the divisive new defence minister, a man calling for war with India's new post-Independence neighbours.
With the Malabar House team tasked to hunt down the assassin's co-conspirators - aided by agents from Britain's MI6 security service - Persis is quickly relegated to the sidelines. But then she is given a second case, the burned body of an unidentified white man found on a Bombay beach. As she pursues both investigations - with and without official sanction - she soon finds herself headed to the country's capital, New Delhi, a city where ancient and modern India openly clash.
Meanwhile, Persis's colleague, Scotland Yard criminalist Archie Blackfinch, lies in a hospital fighting for his life as all around him the country tears itself apart in the prelude to war...
Reviews / Votes
A book to cancel plans for * Closer * The fifth of the Malabar House series is as charming, disarming and engrossing as ever * Heat * [an] engaging, thoughtful novel * Irish Times *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Hodder & Stoughton
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 199 mm
Width: 130 mm
Thickness: 27 mm
Weight
250 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-3997-0769-5 (9781399707695)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Vaseem Khan
City of Destruction
the warm, witty and utterly addictive cozy mystery with a brilliant female sleuth
E-Book
11/2024
Hodder & Stoughton
€5.99
Available for download
Person
Vaseem Khan is the author of several award-winning crime series including the Baby Ganesh Agency adventures, set in modern Mumbai, and the Malabar House historical crime novels, set in 1950s Bombay.
His first book, The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra, was selected by the Sunday Times as one of the 40 best crime novels published in 2015-2020, and has been translated into 17 languages. Midnight at Malabar House, the first in the Malabar House series, won the Crime Writers' Association Historical Dagger.
Vaseem has won numerous awards for his work, including, most recently, the Fingerprint Award for Historical Crime Novel of the Year for City of Destruction, the fifth in the Malabar House series. Vaseem is also the author of The Girl in Cell A, a psychological thriller set in small town America, and Quantum of Menace, the first in a series featuring Q from the world of James Bond.
His first book, The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra, was selected by the Sunday Times as one of the 40 best crime novels published in 2015-2020, and has been translated into 17 languages. Midnight at Malabar House, the first in the Malabar House series, won the Crime Writers' Association Historical Dagger.
Vaseem has won numerous awards for his work, including, most recently, the Fingerprint Award for Historical Crime Novel of the Year for City of Destruction, the fifth in the Malabar House series. Vaseem is also the author of The Girl in Cell A, a psychological thriller set in small town America, and Quantum of Menace, the first in a series featuring Q from the world of James Bond.