Maliha Anderson Mysteries - Maliha Anderson 1-3
Formats: E-Book, Paperback, Hardback
Ages: 18+
Book 1: Murder out of the Blue.
1908. A gruesome death. An airship full of suspects.
Maliha Anderson prefers to be alone, even on the long journey back to India. Unfortunately one of her fellow passengers is a murderer. She should stay out of the death of the General's nurse, but Maliha cannot leave a mystery alone.
Besides, there is no one else on the vessel qualified to investigate, though she's the only person who knows that. Defying her need for isolation, she negotiates prejudice and unwanted personal attentions as she struggles to find the perpetrator. She might die in the attempt but perhaps that's what she wants.
Book 2: Blood Sky At Night
1908. Ceylon. The British Empire tightens its grip on the world.
Attempting to deal with questions of race and identity Maliha Anderson is faced with a murder that brings her face to face with her past. And it's a murder that's interwoven with international politics, that even she may not be able to solve.
Book3: Halo Round the Moon
Pneumatic trains, steampunk air-planes, karmic sex and bloody murder in 1908 India.
When the heir to an industrial empire suffers a fatal accident, Maliha Anderson is called in to determine whether darker forces are at work. What she discovers goes deeper than any crime she's ever investigated.
She is forced into intimate contact with the suppressed passions of post-Victorian society and goes far beyond the bounds of what's proper and decent, to bring the murderer to justice.
Reviews
I have absolutely fallen in love with Maliha! The settings of the stories are well detailed and atmospheric without becoming tedious or disrupting the flow of the story. The mysteries themselves are simple and straightforward, but what captures you is Maliha herself, as she struggles to find her place across two worlds, neither of which want to accept her or in which she is totally comfortable. She grows and changes through time, as do some of the people around her and her relationships with them. I find myself transported into her world as I read, and that's the highest compliment I can give to a writer's abilities.
I had never delved into steampunk before crossing paths with Steve Turnbull, but I'm happy I did. The world he has created is absolutely fascinating, and Maliha Anderson, half Indian, half British, is a large part of that fascination, for her story is one of heroism and tragedy, prejudice and survival. This is a well written series that gets better with every story, and his world evolves with subtlety, leaving the reader hungry for more details.
