Lara Bernhardt

Shadow of the Taj Lara Bernhardt

In the grim, seedy brothels of India, countless poverty-stricken women are trapped in a brutal system that thrives on their abuse. Escape is impossible--until one woman takes a stand for one little girl.



Leslie Matthews travels to India with her husband and risks everything--money, her marriage, even her life--to save Raveena, a twelve-year-old girl she first sees at the New Delhi Zoo, where her handler forces her to dance seductively for money. Haunted by her own dark past, Leslie follows the girl, hoping to help, and is drawn into a bitter world of systemic sexual slavery. She learns the girl will soon be forced into prostitution and resolves to get her out of the brothel she lives in before that happens. The police can't help her. The embassy can't help her. Her husband refuses to help her. Though she has no experience with this world, she resolves to rescue Raveena from the brutal and sordid underworld, whatever the cost...