In a leafy lane in South Delhi’s Greater Kailash-II, all is not well. Lakshmi Krishnamurthi, the lovable ‘Madrasi aunty’ of the neighbourhood, has not been seen for 48 hours. When her neighbour, Ragini Malhotra, accompanies Vikas, the local cop, to investigate, she finds a painting missing from the wall—a five-crore Husain.

Meanwhile, far away, on the Mumbai-Pune highway, Pratap, a long-distance driver, is found stabbed to death. In the car with him that night were an unidentified man and Shobhana Shandilya, a glamorous Mumbai socialite, twice divorced, who has set her sights on the well-known scientist Afroz Ahmed as husband number three.

Is there a connection between the two crimes? Housewife turned Sherlock Holmes Ragini Malhotra discovers that there may just be—when she meets Mrs Krishnamurthi’s niece, the nubile young Bharatanatyam dancer Saudamini, and the seemingly genteel Ruksana Begum, once M.F. Husain’s muse.

It’s a tangled web, and Ragini’s detective skills will be properly tested. Ably assisted by Raunaq, an auto driver, Rudy, Pratap’s gay partner, and Premlata Puri, a private investigator, Mrs Malhotra joins the dots to bring this intricate mesh of love, betrayal, greed, deceit and art smuggling to a startling conclusion.

In his first foray into detective fiction, Feisal Alkazi brings together his knowledge of the worlds of art and theatre, and of the city of Delhi, to create a masterful, entertaining—and sparkling—page-turner.