The Secret Keeper of Jaipur

The Secret Keeper of Jaipur (June 2021) is the second title in The Jaipur Trilogy by Alka Joshi. The author is a native of India who moved to America with her family at the age of nine. After a successful career running her own advertising agency, Joshi began writing fiction in her sixties. The author based the central character in her debut novel on her mother, who never got to choose her own path in life but was determined that her children should have that option.

Joshi’s first novel, The Henna Artist (2020), was the initial installment in The Jaipur Trilogy. When it debuted in March 2020, it became a New York Times bestseller. The novel was featured as a Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick and is currently being developed as a Netflix series. The second title, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur, made the list of Good Morning America’s 27 Books for June and PopSugar’s Best Summer Reads of 2021. The third title in the trilogy, The Perfumist of Paris, was released in March 2023 and was named an Amazon Editor’s Pick for Best Book of the Month in April of that year.

The Secret Keeper of Jaipur falls into the categories of Women’s Historical Fiction and Cultural Heritage Fiction.

This study guide refers to the Kindle edition of the novel.

Plot Summary

The novel begins 12 years after the events of The Henna Artist and features the same set of characters, using first-person narration from the alternating viewpoints of the three central characters: Lakshmi, Malik, and Nimmi. The story is set in two locations in northern India: the small mountain town of Shimla and the larger city of Jaipur in Rajasthan. The location shifts to correspond to the whereabouts of the three central characters at different points in time. The action takes place during the months of March through July 1969; the year is significant because the central government passed the Gold Control Act in 1968, and this mandate has a bearing on the novel’s plot. However, the timeline isn’t linear; it jumps between present and past events within the five-month period the story covers.

As the story opens, Malik (who once assisted Lakshmi, his adoptive mother, in her trade as a henna artist) is attending the grand opening of the Royal Jewel Theater in Jaipur. Now 20 years old, Malik has just completed a first-class education financed by Lakshmi’s former benefactor, Samir Singh. Lakshmi wants Malik to go to Jaipur to learn the construction business from the Singh family and Manu Agarwal. The latter is the project manager for all the royal family’s public works. Malik is tangentially involved in the theater building project. Another reason that Lakshmi wants to send Malik to the big city is that while he was in the small town of Shimla, Malik formed an emotional attachment to a widow named Nimmi, whom Lakshmi doesn’t consider a suitable match for her adopted son.

In Jaipur, Malik renews his acquaintance with the wealthy Singh family. Samir owns the city’s biggest building firm, and his son Ravi is the chief architect of the Royal Jewel Theater project. Malik also spends time with Lakshmi’s old friend Kanta and her husband Manu, who is Malik’s new boss and mentor.

Everything proceeds smoothly until the theater’s grand opening, when a balcony collapses, killing two people and injuring dozens. The rumor mill is quick to blame Malik’s boss, Manu, because he signed all the construction paperwork. However, Malik grows suspicious that someone else substituted inferior building materials that weakened the structure. When Lakshmi comes to Jaipur to help Manu and Kanta, she and Malik begin a private investigation that points to Ravi Singh as the real culprit behind the disaster. As Malik and his guardian race against time to clear an innocent man’s name, the novel examines the themes of Personal Life Choices, The Fear of Disgrace, and The Power of Secrets.

Because the Singhs are influential, Lakshmi calls on some powerful friends of her own in the royal palace to resolve the problem. Ravi’s shoddy construction was a cover for a gold smuggling operation. When the royal family learns this fact, the entire Singh family relocates to the US rather than face disgrace in Jaipur. Manu is cleared of the crime, and Malik asserts his right to decide where he’ll work and whom he’ll marry. The novel ends with the wedding of Malik and Nimmi in Shimla. Lakshmi recognizes that she needs to stop interfering in Malik’s life, and she looks forward to opening a training center for regional herbalists in her Healing Garden.