Dharma

Meet my protagonist, Rekha Rao, a thirty-something Indian American professor of art history. Disillusioned by academia and haunted by the murder of her father, for which she believes police convicted the wrong person, she moves away from her match-making family. She's focusing on managing her PTSD and healing her heartbroken by an abusive boyfriend.She gets entangled in a second murder, that of her mentor and father figure. An idol of the Hindu Goddess Durga is the murder weapon left on the body. Detective Al Newton asks her to look into the relationship, if any, between the meaning of the statue and the motive for the murder. Rekha is attracted to Al but steers clear of him because of her distaste for cops and fear of a new relationship, sticking to her job. The two constantly clash, starting a love-hate relationship. Meanwhile, her family sets her up to meet a suitor, an Indian attorney, who turns out to be a very likable man.When police arrest one of her students, and accuse her mentor of idol theft, Rekha's dharma, her sense of duty, rears its head, and propels her into looking for the killer on her own. Despite admonitions from Al and bodily harm caused by an intruder who broke into her home, Rekha finds the killer, and in the process, emerges from the cocoon of a protected upbringing, to taste the prospect of a romance, and discover her true identity.