Bathing with the Dead

"tremendous talent" - Sam Jordison, Galley Beggar Press

Snippet from the book: "Water leaks into Fernanda's shoes. She smiles nervously at the woman with black teeth and tattoo and the nose chain and the dot between her eyes. The woman smiles back, puts her hands together in prayer fashion and bows towards Fernanda. Fernanda puts her hands together too and prays, prays that the boat won't sink; though after a while she relaxes and enjoys the sight of the crowded ancient ghats, now, from the relative sanitary safety of the vessel."

Newlywed Fernanda accompanies her husband Randy, an IBM consultant, on assignment in the oldest city in the world, Varanasi, India. Fernanda is overwhelmed by the strangeness of the place, the outdoor burning of the dead on the steps leading down to the holy Ganges river, the pilgrims mingling on the steps along with water buffalo and orange-robed ascetics and bead vendors and boatmen offering rides. She decides to spend a week at a spa in the more tranquil north, unintentionally leaving her new husband Randy to the charms of a former French colleague named Julie. But there is more at play here as Julie, Randy and finally Fernanda fall into a deadly trap.

Books in the Else First Kiss Mystery Series: BATHING WITH THE DEAD (#1)HER HEART IN RUINS (#2)ALL THAT WE TOUCH (#3) 2016

Else's fiction has been broadcast by the BBC World Service, included in a literary review published by the Sorbonne in Paris, and shortlisted for the Shakespeare & Company Novella Prize.