Book Review | Arefa Tehsin's The Fourth Girl - a Feminist Thriller Based in Udaipur and Colombo

UdaipurTimes, August 8, 2026 | Book Review: In The Fourth Girl, Arefa Tehsin crafts an elegant and deeply unsettling novel about memory, womanhood and the quiet violences that shape ordinary lives. Rich with emotional nuance and psychological depth, the book examines the burdens women inherit, the compromises they make and the secrets that often become the foundation of family and friendship.

Set against the lush, atmospheric backdrop of Sri Lanka, the novel follows three women whose lives have long moved on from a shared tragedy. Successful and respected in their own worlds, they are brought together once again by loss, only to find themselves confronting the unanswered disappearance that has shadowed them for two decades. As old loyalties are tested and buried truths begin to surface, the women must reckon not only with the past, but with the versions of themselves they have spent years carefully preserving.

With her signature lyricism and sensitivity, Arefa Tehsin writes with remarkable insight into the emotional landscapes of women—their silences, their resilience and the invisible negotiations that underpin relationships, marriages and domestic life. At once a literary mystery and a meditation on guilt, class, caste and the complexities of female intimacy, The Fourth Girl asks whether the truths we suppress ever truly disappear or merely wait for the right moment to return.

Blending suspense with social observation, The Fourth Girl is a poignant and compelling exploration of contemporary womanhood and the fragile nature of memory. It is a novel about the stories families tell, the secrets friendships protect and the enduring question of how well we can ever know those closest to us.

What people say about The Fourth Girl:

"Arefa knows how to pin you down with a fast-moving tale about turn-of-the-century Udaipur."

- Pradip Krishen, Filmmaker, Author and Environmentalist.

"Tehsin opens The Fourth Girl in Colombo, and earns the choice — sea salt and arrack, Kadupul heaped about a dead editor's coffin. The true mystery is not a girl gone missing but the quiet cruelties the privileged inflict upon the vulnerable, rendered with a moral intelligence that never curdles into sermon".

•  Pramudith D. Rupasinghe, Laureate of the Golden Aster Prize for Global Literature, Founder: The Asian Prizes

"The Fourth Girl shows Arefa Tehsin's real range, style and verve. Moving between Colombo and Udaipur, the novel stretches over two decades, and  juggles its timelines with aplomb that keeps the reader engaged and does not feel showy. Each strand creates its own tension and builds its own pressure taking the reader to the climax. Tehsin's prose is sensory and lively: it carries the smell of sea salt and cigar smoke, with the shadows of dowry-deaths and drawing-room cruelty looming over the pages. Her wit is sly and her eye for hypocrisy remains unsparing. Beneath the plot runs a steady, furious feminist current. The Fourth Girl reveals  darkness and comedy, her tone always assured and sharp."

- Salil Tripathi, Author (most recently of The Gujaratis: A Portrait of a Community), Editor and Board Member - PEN International

"Arefa writes with the stride of a sturdy, curious, empathetic explorer, moving us from sophisticated Colombo club life to deep night forests, from the height of royalty to its own depraved thinking, tearing apart facades while retaining her quick humour, whimsical wordplay and sharp observation. This is the story of three childhood friends and the trauma that keeps them apart, the mystery that challenges them and us until the last few pages. It’s the story of women devalued from childhood until they rise on their own merit and spirit to look back with some sense of fulfilment. Arefa. The name, from the Arabic, denotes knowledge, wisdom, insight. Arefa doesn’t disappoint."

- Shreekumar Varma, Author, Playwright, Columnist  

"A novel full of power and precision, where the women that fill it don’t wait for any saviours to free themselves. Atmospherically set between Sri Lanka and Rajasthan, Arefa leads us into a forest she knows best where missing gold and a missing girl are the delectable knots being unravelled. However, this edgy story full of underdogs and big dogs is so much more, as the author skillfully layers on magic and metaphor with nature, caste culture, religion, skin colour, discrimination, inherited injustices, women’s rights, and, most importantly, a rumination on trust. The writing is striding, blazingly unique, and its generous rewards culminate in a very cathartic wait-for-it conclusion. Hashtag enthralling!"

- Mrinalini Harchandrai, Poet and Novelist 

"Intriguing characters, scintillating prose…Tehsin’s expert storytelling will keep you glued to the page from beginning to end".

- Deepa Agarwal, Author and Poet 

"Travels and travails intersect in this elegant cocktail of social manners, mysterious twists and a keen sense of sights and sounds, written in a breezy style that mixes commercial fiction with literary charm."

- Madhavan Narayan, Journalist and Senior Editor 

"Another Arefa Adventure, with all her signature characters:  trackers, foresters, the Aravallis, rest house verandahs, buzzards... and a narrative that's a rapid page-turner."

- Zai Whitaker, Author & Co-Founder - Madras Crocodile Bank

"This is a delicious novel in every sense of the word: rich, intoxicating and impossible to put down. What begins as an engrossing mystery gradually reveals hidden debts of class, caste and friendship, drawing the reader ever deeper into the lives of four women bound by a shared past and devastating secrets. Tehsin masterfully peels back each layer until the final pages, where the novel becomes something even greater: a profound meditation on the ambitions, betrayals and fragile bonds that shape our lives. A magnificent, emotionally resonant page-turner that lingers long after the mystery is solved."

- Michiel Baas, Author and Literature Festival Director

"A riveting, visually rich tale full of surprises, with intricately woven characters and events that keep the reader hooked until the very last word."

Nina Sabnani, Animation filmmaker and Illustrator.