The Watermark Files, Book 1
The Palace Writer
A cellar of gold. A royal deed from 1948. Paper that is thirteen years too young.
Restoration workers break open a bricked-up cellar under Kanakmer Fort and find nearly sixty thousand gold sovereigns. The state says the gold is public money. The Sonraj family, who once ruled Kanakmer, produce a deed from 1948 that says it is theirs.
The court calls Ira Sahni, a questioned-documents examiner from Delhi who trusts paper more than people. With Kabir Anand, a reporter who lost his job for telling the truth, she starts where she always starts: the paper. The watermark is too young. The red wax seal carries a line that should not be there. And four pages are missing from the one register that could settle it all.
Then the old record keeper who watched those pages being cut is run down outside a Jodhpur bus stand on his way to the police. From a desert fort to a night train and a ninety-year-old paper shop in Mumbai, the trail leads to a powerful family and a letter someone has hidden for decades.
Watermarks and paper datingWax sealsMissing register pages
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Can I read The Palace Writer on its own?
Yes. The Palace Writer is Book 1 of The Watermark Files and is a complete case with its own ending. Reading in order adds the background of Ira and Kabir's earlier cases.
Where is The Palace Writer set?
Mostly in Rajasthan and Mumbai, India.
Who wrote The Palace Writer?
Anchit Tandon, author of The Watermark Files series.