"The Silversmith’s Puzzle"

Author Nev March is the first Indian-born writer to win Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America’s Award for Best First Crime Fiction. Her debut novel Murder in Old Bombay was an Edgar and Anthony finalist.

March’s books deal with issues of identity, race and moral boundaries. Her sequel, Peril at the Exposition is set at the 1893 World’s Fair, during a time of conflict that planted the seeds of today’s red-blue political divide. In Captain Jim and Lady Diana’s third adventure The Spanish Diplomat’s Secret they face a strange, otherworldly foe who causes Jim to question the nature of justice. In the newly released The Silversmith’s Puzzle, Captain Jim and Diana race back to colonial India to rescue Diana’s beloved brother Adi, who is accused of murder.

March applied the Page 69 Test to The Silversmith’s Puzzle and reported the following:

On page 69 we read the tail-end of chapter 10 (this is my shortest novel, at 322 pages). Although it’s only a quarter of a page, it reveals the rapport between Captain Jim and young Diana.

Hoisting myself from my chair I dropped a kiss on her still-flushed cheek, saying, “You’ve given me an idea.”

As I dragged on my boots and fetched my hat from the stand, she called, “Where are you going? Mama bought fresh drumsticks for our curry.”

“Wouldn’t miss it,” I assured her, tapping on the broad-brimmed solar, a mainstay for gents in the tropics. “Going to chat with the darling man. He buys surgical supplies.”

“Oh!” She sat up, all eyes. “To get him to buy Adi’s scalpels?”

“No.” I grinned. “To find out whose profits are threatened by Adi’s business!”

Readers would likely pop open page 69 and then skim the previous page 68 to suss-out what’s going on. Here Diana’s grumbling about how she’s been cut by her social acquaintances, and refused membership by an officious librarian. While she’s griping, she lists the obstacles that her brother Adi (who’s accused of murder) has faced, which gives Captain Jim a possible new suspect!

So yes, taken together, this page and a quarter distill the essence of my story, the couple’s distinct challenges, and their endearing bond. ‘Darling Man’ is what Diana calls Doctor Jameson, because he had previously (in Murder in Old Bombay) helped her and Captain Jim get together. Although the Page 69 Test works, it does not hint at the darker themes of the novel, nor the action-adventure in the latter part of the novel.

I think that readers who’ve followed Captain Jim and Lady Diana through the first three books will enjoy seeing them match their wits against a seemingly intractable challenge. Readers who haven’t met them yet will likely want to go back to where it all started, with a Murder in Old Bombay.

Visit Nev March's website.

Q&A with Nev March.

The Page 69 Test: Murder in Old Bombay.

My Book, The Movie: Murder in Old Bombay.

Writers Read: Nev March.

--Marshal Zeringue