Grave Secrets in Goa (Ruby Jones)

The second book in an edgy new India-set crime series starring English journalist Ruby Jones—Alexander McCall Smith meets Alex Garland

Ruby Jones just wanted to relax and take a holiday. She made a bad decision when she headed for Goa. Famed for beaches and full-moon parties, Goa is also home to one of the most famous Christian shrines in Asia—St. Francis Xavier, his body still miraculously intact after 500 years. But when the head of the saint is stolen, Ruby discovers that's not the only thing going missing in Goa, and that beyond the palm-fringed beaches is a world of smuggling, corruption, and crime. The weather is balmy and the sea is warm, but Ruby can't play at being tourist when her journalist instincts are twitching. She soon finds herself at the center of a lethal world turning in on itself, with deadly consequences.

Kathleen McCaul has worked as a journalist in Kashmir, Qatar, the UK, and India, and in 2003 helped start Iraq's first postwar English language newspaper. She is the author of The Murder in the Ashram.