A RITUAL KILLING. AN ANCIENT CURSE. WHAT'S MYTH... AND WHAT'S MURDER?

'A slick, masterfully plotted, white-knuckle ride of a read,' A.A. CHAUDHURI
'A highly enjoyable and hugely entertaining read' NILESHA CHAUVET

After a bruising encounter with a terrorist group, Detective Kamil Rahman has resigned from the Met and set up a detective agency with his friend Anjoli. But when his boss asks him to go to India to investigate the murder of a British engineer who was found with eighteen arrows stuck in his body, Kamil agrees to take the case, as long as Anjoli can accompany him.

When they arrive in Mumbai, they find someone is on a gruesome killing spree, striking down those connected to the engineer in increasingly macabre ways. Meanwhile, an old friend of Kamil’s begs for his help breaking the curse he believes his family is under.

As the body count rises, Kamil is torn between solving a very real murder case and protecting his friend from a grisly – if far-fetched – fate. Can he catch a killer and prevent an ancient curse before more people lose their lives?

Praise for the Detective Kamil Rahman novels:

'Outstanding' SUNDAY TIMES
'Hugely entertaining' ANN CLEEVES
'A rip-roaring mystery that's engrossing from start to finish' ABIR MUKHERJEE

READERS LOVE KAMIL AND ANJOLI:
‘Keeps getting better and better’
‘In Kamil and Anjoli, Ajay Chowdhury has created a modern day Holmes and Watson’
‘Full of intrigue and twists and turns’

Ritual killings, a generational curse … This book is a riot. Chowdhury’s depiction of India is visceral and real, blending old and new. A narrative woven tightly, twisting and turning, it leaves you constantly looking behind and sideways, at what you may have missed. A highly enjoyable and hugely entertaining read. -- Nilesha Chauvet
Inventive in terms of locations and plots ... Poised brilliantly between revelations about Indian business practices and the power of ancient beliefs -- The Times
Inventive in terms of locations and plots… [The Shadow] is poised brilliantly between revelations about Indian business practices and the power of ancient beliefs * Sunday Times *
Another fabulous outing in Chowdhury's high octane series * Daily Express *
Gripping whodunit… Chowdhury keeps the reader in total suspense * Parsi Magazine, India *
The tension never flags as Chowdhury dextrously moves backward and forward in time in a natural and seamless manner, adding to the complexity of the plot. The novel is a gripping and delightful read * Parsiana *

Ajay Chowdhury, the inaugural winner of the Harvill Secker-Bloody Scotland prize, is a tech entrepreneur and theatre director. His children’s book – Ayesha and the Firefish, was published in 2016 and adapted into a musical which premiered in San Francisco.


The Waiter (Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month), was published in 2021, and is the first in his critically-acclaimed crime series about Detective Kamil Rahman, an ex-policeman from Kolkata who has moved to Brick Lane in London. It is being adapted for television by Moonage Pictures.The Cook (Guardian Top Crime Books of the Year) was published in May 2022 to excellent reviews and deals with the issue of homelessness. The third book in the series – The Detective (Sunday Times Top Crime Books of the Year) – is about government surveillance and AI. The Spy (Longlisted Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing), the fourth book, sees Kamil infiltrate a terrorist cell. The Shadow (A Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month) is the latest book in the series.