The Seventh Swar (The Satyadarshi Mysteries, 1) By Natasha Sharma

Seven notes.

Seven deaths.

A secret waiting to be sung.

When an old woman is stabbed to death in her Mumbai apartment, ex-cop-turned-private-investigator Satyadarshi expects it to be a routine murder investigation. Well, as routine as murders ever get. But the deeper she digs, the more confounding the case appears.

Clues hidden in classical music, an innocuous-looking wall hanging she keeps seeing everywhere and a tattered old book that seems abuzz with secrets rooted in ancient Indian history … As she is vaulted back to King Ashoka’s times (yes, that Ashoka) by her unusual discoveries, she finds the threads of his legacy entangled with those of her own life in ways she is completely unprepared for.

As she chases leads through Mumbai’s humid chaos, Satyadarshi also has to fend off her mother’s relentless matchmaking, investigate an overweight So-Bo dog and deal with an almost-date whose nerdy facts and unexpectedly muscular chest make her heart race. Not to mention the growing pile of bodies further ensnaring her in a conspiracy that spans across centuries and threatens to upend everything she knows to be true about her family and herself.

Witty, pacy and dripping with Mumbai’s entropic charm, The Seventh Swar is a classic murder mystery with a rom-com twist.