Madras, 1944 While World War II rages in Europe and the Japanese army draws closer to India, Raji and her sisters are sent off with their mother to stay in Manikoil, her mother's family village. But with her brother now a soldier in the British Indian Army and refugees fleeing from Malaya, Burma and other eastern countries back to India, Manikoil is no longer the peaceful haven it once was. And while there is hope of Independence in the air, Raji is uncertain whether it will come to pass-a...

‘I can hardly imagine it, but everything will be different tomorrow. I’ve looked forward to it for years. I’ll truly be Sundaram’s wife, together in body as in spirit . . .’But that tomorrow never comes, and at just fourteen, Aru is left a widow. Worse, the village whispers name Sundaram a drunkard and a thief—the thief who called down the wrath of the local goddess by stealing the most precious jewel from her temple. The future Aru once envisioned vanishes, leaving only bleak and ...

Something strange is afoot at the Lotus Palace.A guest is murdered after a boring state banquet ...A secret room full of scorpions is found ...A cloaked stranger passes on information ...Every marble statue seems to hold a secret ...In Melucha, children's alphabet books teach that H is for hemlock, so it is no particular surprise when someone is found murdered. But in a city where everyone has devious and twisted motives, and dire plans, ...

Something strange is afoot at the Royal Academy of Science, Magic and the Arts ... A standing statue sits down with a meditative smile ... A demigod is caught smuggling the Nectar of Immortality into the Mortal Realm ... Traders in Madh find their goods have been turned into djinn gold ... An illegal portal into the Inter-Realm has opened and no one knows who has done it ... A strange creature has been sighted in the vaults under the Academy ... Will Meenakshi and Kalban be able to get to ...