Author: Rupa Mahadevan
Publisher: Joffe Books
To Be Published: September 25, 2025
I loved learning about the Hindu Festival of Dolls, or Navaratri, where traditionally, nine dolls are displayed on handmade tiers. The higher tiers represent gods and goddesses, characters from mythology, or scenes from weddings. Everyday scenes are displayed on the lower tiers. However, Leela’s version is a unique take, wherein the dolls assume the significance of the secrets of the people who have been invited to this remote house in the Scottish Highlands.
Leela carefully unwraps each doll and places each on the shelves, in the cabin adjacent to the house, which she and the other guests will visit each day. But then, the dolls are moved, each day, a different secret revealed. It’s bad luck to even touch the dolls, but this? This is a very bad omen!
The book started out slowly, and the chapters are interspersed from different characters’ POV. The problem I had was that there were reveals with backstories coming later, so that I always felt like I was missing something. What kept me engaged, though, was the great plot, learning about a cultural practice that was so well described and implemented into the storyline, and the twists at the end. This was a very ambitious and clever suspense thriller from this debut author.
Thank you to Joffe Books for publishing diverse voices and for sending me an advance reader’s copy to review
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