CUDDLING THE AIR

As India seeks a new identity after the Raj, a wealthy businessman, Vijay Jaipal, is found dead in his mansion nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas-his eyes wide open and staring at the ceiling. Long before his death, Jaipal had risen from obscurity by entangling Terry Lonsdale, a gentle British irrigation engineer, in a web of subtle manipulation.

When Detective Inspector Shakeel Sagar arrives to investigate, he uncovers not just a crime but a tangled web of pain, longing and hidden truths. There is Anika Jaipal, the deceased man's granddaughter, trembling on the brink of collapse and seeking solace in her devotion to a holy man whose past is shrouded in darkness. There is Nisha, scarred by that darkness. And then there is Joseph Chase, a scandal-sheet editor who wields secrets as a means of survival and a weapon for destruction.

As Sagar navigates their complex lives, he begins to realise that the murder is merely a superficial disturbance of something quieter and more enduring: the stories people tell themselves to endure their own emptiness and the fierce, impossible desire to hold on to what was never truly theirs.

Cuddling the Air is a psychological fugue disguised as a mystery-an exploration of memory, self-deception and the fragile, futile attempt to hold on to what is already slipping away.

Surendra Verma is a science writer and author based in Melbourne, Australia, since 1970. He has published numerous popular science books in Australia, the UK, the US and India, which have been translated into 14 languages other than English.