DESI DIARY
WHY WAS THE SILVERSMITH SO FRANTIC FOR GOLD?
Nev March’s fourth book, The Silversmith’s Puzzle, has just been published.
Born in Mumbai, India, Nev March is a writer of mystery and historical fiction. Writing short stories, poems and novels since the age of eleven, she has previously published stories in children’s magazines and won Writers Digest and Maryland Writers Association contests.
With four completed manuscripts, she took a hiatus from writing fiction in order to raise her family while working full time. After a twenty-year career as a data scientist, March returned to writing full time in 2015 to write the first draft of Murder In Old Bombay.
Based on the still-unsolved deaths of the Godrej sisters in 1891 Bombay, her manuscript won the 2019 Mystery Writers of America/Minotaur Books First Novel Award, the first Indian-born author to win this award for first crime novel.
“As a Parsi, this story was part of my teenage years, so my novel creates a fictional solution based on the times,” says March.
The novel was well received and has sold over 50K copies.
An immigrant herself, March has an affinity for diverse characters finding their way in challenging environments. Her books combine the excitement of mystery and adventure novels with emotional journeys of personal adversity.
Her fourth book, The Silversmith’s Puzzle, has just been published.
It is inspired by the first failed business of Ardeshir Godrej, the founder of Godrej enterprises. This adventure continues the saga of detective Captain Jim, an Anglo-Indian man and his Parsi wife Diana Framji, as they investigate a murder amidst colonial Bombay’s complex hierarchy.
In 1894 colonial India, Lady Diana’s family has lost their fortune in a global financial slump, but even worse, her brother Adi is accused of murder. Desperate to save him from the gallows, Captain Jim and Lady Diana rush back to Bombay. However, the traditional Parsi community finds Jim and Diana’s marriage taboo and shuns them.
The dying words of Adi’s business partner, a silversmith, are perplexing. As Captain Jim peels back the curtains on this man’s life he finds a trail of unpaid bills, broken promises, lies and secrets. Why was the silversmith so frantic for gold, and where is it? What awful truth does it represent?
Set in lush, late-Victorian India, Captain Jim and Diana struggle with the complexities of caste, tradition, and loyalty. Their success and their own lives may depend on Diana, who sacrificed her inheritance for love. Someone within their circle has the key to this puzzle. Can she find a way to reconnect with the tight community that threw them aside?
Having mesmerized readers with her previous adventures of Jim and Diana, Nev March takes readers back to the momentous years of the British Raj.
Nev March lives in New Jersey with her husband and sons. As a member of the small Zoroastrian community, she created a community oral history project to record the stories of Zoroastrian immigrants to North America.
In 2006, March hosted and then drove two community youths to the World Gujarat Congress where she had put up a small exhibit about Parsi Zoroastrians.
“Driving up, we spoke about the first generation of Parsi immigrants and how many of them had passed away. That’s how the idea of an Oral History Project was born. Together, Hosmuz Katki, Dinyar Patel and I got a grant from the Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America (FEZANA) to buy two early digital camcorders. We recruited local youth to interview a set of community seniors. These interviews were summarized in the Fall 2007 issue of the FEZANA Journal, and some of the recordings still survive.
“A senior community member also recorded interviews with Iranian seniors when he visited Yazd and Tehran in 2007. These precious recordings in Farsi contain family stories of the difficulties and perseverance of the community through major adversity.
“We are now trying to preserve these in the recent Oral History Project with Rice University and the Zoroastrian Association of Houston. Doing this project gave me an added appreciation of the financial struggles and loneliness our seniors underwent. Therefore we are doubly grateful for the warm and loving community we have created. There are now 28 Zoroastrian Associations in North America and 14 small groups, which together form FEZANA. I’ve been a proud volunteer with the association in New York for 22 years, and it is my home away from home.”
The Silversmith’s Puzzle by Nev March is published by Minotaur Books, USD 29.
As President of the NY chapter, she oversees their programs and work constantly to serve the three constituent groups: new writers, aspiring authors and established authors.
“To improve our craft, we have monthly CrimeCraft discussions with famous writers, the MWA symposium in New York and a monthly newsletter that includes articles and useful links. To help members connect and socialize, we have Local Group meetings, an annual expert panel in NJ, and six Manhattan Mystery Readings each year. We have a pretty active social media group for facebook and blue-sky social. We also offer opportunities for authors to promote their work on library panels, and on our website. To encourage newer writers, we have an annual Mentor Program. And last year I created the Leon Burstein Award for unpublished writers which offers a hefty cash award. We have a fantastic board who are fun to work with, and constantly coming up with new ideas!
“I love meeting writers! In my Hunterdon County Library group, we discuss aspects of craft and the writing business. As New York Chapter President of Mystery writers of America, I’ve started an initiative called Local Groups, where writers can connect in their own neighborhoods. I’m leading the Bridgewater Central Jersey group, so I had a chance to meet and get to know local authors, both published and unpublished. And on May 17, I visited CrimeConn at the Ferguson Library in Connecticut and met a number of my favourite crime writers there!
“As I see it, writing is a fairly solitary endeavour. One needs to know how a piece lands on readers, so having a beta reader take a deep dive, or having a critique group is essential. Without these, we may not realize our mistakes, or the inadvertent impression we’re giving readers. Another challenge is getting the word out. The purpose of our work is to be read. So raising awareness of our work in a key challenge for writers of all genres.”