THE KALA GHODA AFFAIR A LALLI MYSTERY - Kalpana Swaminathan - Bog

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.