Tasha Alexander: Murder on the Sacred River
Lady Emily #20
Murder on the Sacred River is the twentieth novel in Tasha Alexander’s series about Lady Emily Hargreaves, an unconventional English noblewoman in the late 19th-early 20th century, and her handsome husband Colin, a secret agent for the British government. Long-time readers of the series will know that Emily and Colin have traveled all over the world, and that each book—at least, the ones that don’t take place in England—has a different setting. This one takes place in India in 1908. The beginning of the book finds Emily and Colin staying with a group of British tourists at the Ahilya Fort in Maheshwar. This fort was built in the 18th century by the maharani Ahilya (full name: Ahilyabai Holkar), a ruling queen who was, and still is, revered for improving the lot of the common people of her kingdom, especially women. As usual with Alexander, Emily’s adventures are intertwined with a plot set in the more distant past, and in this book it’s the story of Ahilya, and how she came to rule her kingdom.