Nev March Has A Series On Indian Immigrants To America

India-West Staff Reporter

The Spanish Diplomat’s Secret, Minotaur Books, September 12, $29.00

Nev March the first Indian-born author to win the Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America Award for Best First Crime Fiction, has written a new work. ‘The Spanish Diplomat’s Secret’ is a story set on an 1890s steamship that follows a pair of Indian immigrants through their adventures in India and America at the turn of the 20th century. Readers of South Asian descent, with a penchant for mysteries and history, are bound to relate and enjoy it even more.

Synopsis:

Captain Jim Agnihotri and his wife Lady Diana Framji are embarking to England in the summer of 1894. Jim is hopeful the cruise will help Diana open up to him. Something is troubling her, and Jim is concerned. On their first evening, Jim meets an intriguing Spaniard, a fellow soldier with whom he finds an instant kinship. But within twenty-four hours, Don Juan Nepomuceno is murdered, his body discovered shortly after he asks rather urgently to see Jim.

Aboard the beleaguered luxury liner are a thousand suspects, but no witnesses to the locked-cabin crime. The captain pleads with Jim to find the killer before they dock in Liverpool, or there could be dire international consequences.

Using the tricks gleaned from their favorite fictional sleuth, Sherlock Holmes, Jim, and Diana work to learn why one man’s life came to a murderous end. Having mesmerized readers with her previous book, ‘Peril at the Exposition, ‘Nev March wields her craft against the glittering landscape of the Gilded Age with spectacular results.

Author:

Nev March in her debut novel, ‘Murder in Old Bombay’ was a finalist for six national awards including the Edgar and Anthony awards. Her sequel Peril at the Exposition describes the 1893 World’s Fair, a time of conflict that planted the seeds of today’s red-blue political divide. Nev’s books deal with issues of identity, race, and moral boundaries.

Leaving a career in business analysis, she returned to her passion for writing fiction and teaches at the Rutgers University – Osher Institute. She is also Vice President of her local Zoroastrian Association.