THE KALA GHODA AFFAIR A LALLI MYSTERY - Swaminathan Kalpana

Bombay, 1896. A handsome Indian Prince loses his heart to a European

woman of striking beauty. She is staying at the only hotel fit for Europeans-

Watson's, in the elite Kala Ghoda area of the city. The Prince gifts his lady

love a necklace of gold set with a beautiful sapphire of so deep a blue that it

is known as the Kala Ghoda. But then Fate intervenes. An epidemic of the

plague sweeps the city and the lady sets sail for Paris without even bidding

goodbye. Before her ship sails, she returns the Prince's gift through his groom,

Madan. When the jewel case is opened, the necklace is there, but the sapphire

is not. Madan is accused of the theft, and hanged. The Prince loses his lady

and, in years to come, his fortune.

The sapphire appears to have fulfilled its prophecy-that it will bring

misfortune to anyone who possesses it. The groom is forever known as 'Madan

Chor', and the scandal follows his family for four generations.

To find a jewel that has gone missing for 125 years seems an impossible

task-even for Lalli. She finds unexpected help in Jean Claude, the retired

Chief of Police from Paris, who is here to investigate l'affaire du cheval noir-

an investigation begun more than a century ago by Edmund Locard, the

legendary detective. It was Locard who was originally engaged to find the

sapphire.

It is up to Lalli and Jean Claude to finish the task Locard began. And, despite

the re-emergence of Lalli's old enemy, Rassiwala, and his evil designs-this is

what they achieve. Not for nothing is Lalli, long retired, still the Last Resort

for the Mumbai Police.