This image is the cover for the book Cromartie vs. the God Shiva

Cromartie vs. the God Shiva

Love, intrigue, and death ensue when a statue of a Hindu god is stolen from an Indian hotel in this masterwork from a New York Times–bestselling author.

Sydney Cromartie is aghast when London officials inform him that his precious statuette of the Hindu god Shiva is in fact an artifact stolen from India, its mother country. But, despite the insistence of the Indian government, the irate Canadian art collector will not give it up without a legal fight.

English barrister Michael Dean is thrilled to be assigned to a case that will allow him to return to his native India. Arriving at Patna Hall—the quaint seaside hotel on the Coromandel coast where the theft allegedly took place—he quickly launches into his investigation, casting suspicion on everyone, including the inn’s vivacious Anglo-Indian proprietress, Auntie Sanni.

But there are complexities Dean never anticipated—and one very serious distraction: his emerging feelings for a mysterious archaeologist. Still, he must remain resolute, even if the facts he’s at risk of uncovering could lead to disappointment, disillusionment, even tragedy.

In her final novel, award-winning author Rumer Godden returns to southern India and the charming beachfront resort that was the site of her popular Coromandel Sea Change. Based on a real late twentieth-century incident—when a Hindu god became, in essence, the plaintiff in a sensational legal case—Cromartie vs. the God Shiva is an unforgettable tale from a writer of “depth and sensitivity” (Los Angeles Times) and “a novelist of many gifts” (TheDaily Telegraph).

This ebook features an illustrated biography of the author including rare images from the Rumer Godden Literary Estate.

Rumer Godden

Rumer Godden (1907–1998) was the author of more than sixty works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and children’s literature, and is considered by many to be one of the foremost English language writers of the twentieth century. Born in Sussex, England, she moved with her family to Narayanganj, colonial India, now Bangladesh, when she was six months old. Godden began her writing career with Chinese Puzzle in 1936 and achieved international fame three years later with her third book, Black Narcissus. A number of her novels were inspired by her nearly four decades of life in India, including The River, Kingfishers Catch Fire, Breakfast with the Nikolides, and her final work,Cromartie vs. the God Shiva, published in 1997. She returned to the United Kingdom for good at the end of World War II and continued her prolific literary career with the acclaimed novels The Greengage Summer, In This House of Brede, and numerous others. Godden won the Whitbread Award for children’s literature in 1972, and in 1993 she was named an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Nine of her novels have been made into motion pictures. She died at the age of ninety in Dumfriesshire, UK.
 

Open Road Integrated Media