Geeta's been branded a churel — a revenge-seeking mythological being — by her Indian village because her abusive husband, Ramesh, disappeared five years ago and everybody assumes she murdered him. The story always varies: Did she feed him to stray dogs? Poison him? The village can think what they want; Geeta didn't kill him, but after suffering his abuse, being viewed as a murderous widow seems like the most freedom she has experienced in her whole life. That is, until some other women want to get rid of their own horrible husbands as well, and they think Geeta is the perfect candidate to help execute them. She soon finds herself blackmailed into becoming an accomplice for a crime that has never been a part of her resume. In other words, Geeta realizes she's in deep shit, and somehow, the pile keeps getting deeper and deeper. Parini Shroff's The Bandit Queens is a darkly ...