Geeta, a young widow in her 30s, lives in a small village near Kohra in northeastern India. She’s a bit of an outcast, having gained a reputation for murdering her husband, Ramesh, five years earlier, a notoriety that she cultivates (even though it’s not true) since it means she gets to maintain her independence. It also means that she is sometimes lonely since other women keep their distance. The exception is the small group of female entrepreneurs with whom she participates in a microloan program.

"Rather than trying to force the book into a particular type, readers would be better served to simply immerse themselves in the story and follow the unexpected journey of Geeta and her friends wherever it may lead."

However, it turns out that one of Geeta’s fellow entrepreneurs, Farah, is having trouble repaying her portion of the loan. Her husband has taken advantage of the free money and used it to buy alcohol. What’s worse, after he’s drunk, he has a tendency to abuse Farah and their children. Knowing Geeta’s infamy, Farah approaches Geeta about making him disappear the same way Ramesh did. Geeta balks at first, but --- inspired by the historical figure Phoolan Devi, known as the Bandit Queen --- she agrees to help Farah take revenge on her abusive spouse and grant Farah her own measure of independence.

What happens next starts an intricate and complicated chain reaction, one with implications far beyond anything Geeta could have expected or planned for. Romance, violence and a memorable rescue dog are just a few of the elements of Parini Shroff’s delightfully plotted debut novel.

Shroff does an admirable job of introducing readers to the complexities of Geeta’s social milieu, with religion and caste compounding gender politics in ways that become increasingly important as the novel progresses. Geeta eventually realizes that her admiration of Phoolan Devi was somewhat superficial. She knows that she has failed to sufficiently recognize and account for the forms of privilege that even she, as a relatively impoverished and ostracized widow, still possesses.

THE BANDIT QUEENS is a difficult novel to categorize. It has elements of mystery and suspense but does not easily slot into those genres. It also contains plenty of humor, much of it fairly dark. Even the humor comments obliquely on gender issues. Just when Geeta and her co-conspirators are convinced that the police are on to them, they are saved because the senior police officer (a male) fails to respect the far superior policing skills of his female colleague. One running joke has Geeta’s friends, all of whom have children, vociferously and repeatedly expressing the joys of motherhood when it’s clear from the context that they actually feel anything but joyful much of the time.

Rather than trying to force the book into a particular type, readers would be better served to simply immerse themselves in the story and follow the unexpected journey of Geeta and her friends wherever it may lead.