Kali's Heel

In this first of the Annie Gilbert mystery series, Carolyn Brown Heinz masterfully fuses history, art, anthropology, and antiquities smuggling.

Annie Gilbert is asked to carry an ancient artifact back to India and return it to a young woman ascetic. But when she arrives in the holy town of Rishikesh in the Himalayan foothills, the woman is missing and other girls are being coerced into erotic rituals.

Against the backdrop of exotic India, Annie battles a charismatic swami building a cult around a priceless image of the goddess Kali and grapples with a mystery that pulls her deeper into an ancient landscape of classical Indian art and powerful goddesses. Drawing from an India past and present, Annie races to find answers and decide whom to trust.