I Never Knew It Was You, by Kalpana Swaminathan, paperback

Description

Sita, detective Lalli?s niece?and occasional Watson?runs into former classmate Anais at Mumbai airport. Even as the friends catch up, Anais hands over a cardboard box she is carrying to a waiting woman, nonchalantly informing the traumatized lady that the box contains her son?s ashes. Some days later, Anais herself turns up dead in the slimy Mithi River, a pink nylon rope wrapped ritually around her neck. What does the cardboard box with human remains have to do with Anais?s murder? And what significance do the peculiar knots round her neck have? Lalli must find answers, fast, if she is to prevent more deaths.