The Shadow

Author Ajay Chowdhury
Narrator Mikhail Sen, Layla Chowdhury
Publisher Random House
Publish Date 13 March 2025
Run Time 11 hours and 2 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Crime and mystery: private investigator / amateur detectives, Occult fiction, Thriller: serial killers.

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

A ritual killing. An ancient curse. What's myth... and what's murder?

After a bruising encounter with a terrorist group, Detective Kamil Rahman has decided to hand in his resignation to the Met and set up a detective agency with his friend Anjoli. But when his boss asks him to go to India to investigate the murder of a British engineer who was found with eighteen arrows stuck in his body, Kamil agrees to take the case, as long as Anjoli can accompany him.

When they arrive in Mumbai, they find someone is on a gruesome killing spree, striking down those connected to the engineer in increasingly macabre ways. Meanwhile, an old friend of Kamil’s gets in touch to beg for his help: he believes his family are cursed, and that he is going to die on his 47^th birthday, just like his father and grandfather before him.

As the body count rises, Kamil is torn between solving a very real murder case and protecting his friend from a grisly – if far-fetched – fate. Can he catch a killer and prevent an ancient curse before more people lose their lives?

Praise for the Detective Kamil Rahman novels:

'Outstanding' SUNDAY TIMES

'Hugely entertaining' ANN CLEEVES

'A rip-roaring mystery that's engrossing from start to finish' ABIR MUKHERJEE

© Ajay Chowdhury 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

Critics Review

A slick, masterfully plotted, white-knuckle ride of a read, packed with action, intrigue and well-drawn characters that get under your skin, and a clever twist in the tale you won't see coming. Chowdhury's beautiful prose and exquisite descriptions will sweep you away to Mumbai's streets and activate all your senses, while the cleverly crafted, hugely suspenseful plotline full of red herrings, twists and turns will keep you guessing right up to the nail-biting denouement. In short, compulsive reading from start to finish. Not to be missed!

A.A. Chaudhuri

You don't have to be a genius to follow the superbly intricate narrative of the new novel from Ajay Chowdhury, but he is brilliant to have written it

Greg Mosse

Revenge is a dish served flaming hot in this twisted tale of betrayal, an inescapable curse, and seemingly impossible murders amongst Mumbai's elite. The Shadow is a gripping new instalment in Ajay Chowdhury's always intriguing Detective Kamil Rahman series

Paul Waters

Ritual killings, a generational curse ... This book is a riot. Chowdhury's depiction of India is visceral and real, blending old and new. A narrative woven tightly, twisting and turning, it leaves you constantly looking behind and sideways, at what you may have missed. A highly enjoyable and hugely entertaining read.

Nilesha Chauvet

Inventive in terms of locations and plots ... Poised brilliantly between revelations about Indian business practices and the power of ancient beliefs

The Times

Inventive in terms of locations and plots... [The Shadow] is poised brilliantly between revelations about Indian business practices and the power of ancient beliefs

Sunday Times

Another fabulous outing in Chowdhury's high octane series

Daily Express

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