It’s hard to say who the father was — her husband or the painter who had seduced her into abandoning her own painted landscapes, turning her attention to painting portraits. It was even harder to confirm once the baby and its mother succumbed, leaving her devoted nurse under suspicion and bearing questions of her own.

After all, she left no note.

It’s 1937 in Bombay. Women are still wearing sarees and silk blouses, but some, particularly those who have come from London or Paris, are wearing gowns of silk and liquid satins, as well as tweed suits and cloche hats and, as always, layers of jewelry.

Alka Joshi is fascinated. Enough so that the best-selling author of “The Henna Artist” trilogy closed the book on “Lakshmi’s saga,” at least for now. Instead, she turned her attention to a new novel based on her intrigue of actual artist Amrita Sher-Gil (1913-1941), a hauntingly beautiful Hungarian-Indian painter. Considered one of the greatest avant-garde women artists of the early 20th century, Sher-Gil often has been compared to Frida Kahlo for her beauty, her prodigious and socially conscious art, and her untimely passing, at 28.

Although Kahlo died 13 years later, at 54. “Six Days in Bombay,” which publishes Tuesday through Mira, an imprint of Harlequin/Harper Collins, is not about Amrita Sher-Gil.

It was inspired by her. The apparent protagonist, where the story begins, appears to be artist Mira Novak, a painter, famous “even in Bombay.”

Her mother, “of high caste, had accompanied her daughter from their home in Prague to Florence and, ultimately to Paris, to nurture Mira’s talent.”

In 1933, Sher-Gil was awarded a gold medal at the Paris Salon for her 1932 painting, “Young Girls,” and was granted membership at 19, the youngest member to be admitted.

“I actually went to New Delhi to see Amrita Sher-Gil’s work,” said Joshi, who is known for relentless research, inspired by a fascination for her characters and their culture. “Amrita was so young when she started painting, a real prodigy. Born in Hungary — her mother was a Hungarian opera singer — she began her painter’s life with formal lessons at age 8.”

Entranced by Sher-Gil’s art, enchanted by what she learned of her personality and intrigued by her early death, Joshi wanted to write about a woman so often compared to Kahlo, yet someone she had never heard of. Most, in this country, she imagines have not.

Yet the story, written in first person, reveals the perspective, not of “Mira Novak,” but of her nurse, Sona.

The artist simply — well, actually, it’s somewhat complex — provides the storyline for the real protagonist, Sona, who is bequeathed four paintings whose rightful recipients she must find.

“I thought, what if I were to imagine the story from the point of view of the nurse, Sona,” said Joshi, “who, blamed for Novak’s death, loses her job at the hospital and now needs to travel to track down the rightful recipients and deliver the paintings.

I knew I could cover a lot of ground.”Devoted readers of Joshi’s best-selling “Henna Artist” trilogy may recognize three characters from the series, who inserted themselves in “Six Days in Bombay,” to the author’s surprise but ultimately her permission, once she introduced a few nuanced shifts in who they are and what they represent in the story.

“Throughout the process of relentless research and writing,” said Joshi, “I become so intimately acquainted with my characters, sometimes they don’t want to leave.”

The storyline travels from Bombay to Prague to Paris to Florence to London and, ultimately, back to Bombay. By the end of the book, questions have been answered, conflicts have been resolved, identities have been clarified and readers are left with an alchemy of surprise and satisfaction, restitution and resolve— as is Sona.

“Along the way, Sona also comes to terms with her own complex history,” Joshi said. “In the end, she’ll discover that we are all made up of pieces, and only by seeing the world, do we learn to see ourselves.”

Back story

Joshi, who was born in India but makes her home in Pacific Grove with her writer-husband, Bradley Owen, was 9 years old when her family emigrated to the United States, on behalf of her father’s doctoral program in civil engineering at Iowa State.

The family subsequently moved to St. Louis and then Kansas City, where Joshi and her brothers completed their high school years.

“At 18,” she said, “I went off to Stanford, where I earned a degree in art history, followed by an MFA from California College of Arts, which is why all of my writing has included an element of art or artists or art history.” Joshi landed her first job out of college with Prudential Financial in Los Angeles, where she worked for more than three years, learning how to navigate the nuances of business — and that she needed a more creative pursuit.

By skipping Friday night social hours at TGI Friday’s, packing a bag lunch and eschewing shopping, she saved enough money to abandon her office and explore what she really wanted to do with her life. After taking classes in illustration, graphic design, typography, and advertising, she put together a portfolio which earned her three job interviews — that and the letter she wrote as if her brother had, letting firms know his sister had forgotten to get married and have kids. “So, unless these firms wanted her to become a burden to her family for the rest of their life,” she wrote, “could they please give her a shot?”

“I was hired by a firm with lots of big clients,” she said, “who assigned me to TV commercials. Due to my education, I thought I was going to be an art director, but they placed me as a junior copywriter. When I questioned that, they told me to give it 30 days.” By the end of the month, Joshi had decided copywriters are the idea generators, and the art directors make everything pretty. She was right where she needed to be. For the moment. To celebrate her birthday, in 2000, Joshi and her husband came to Big Sur and happened to see a sign introducing “Butterfly Town USA.” “We found Pacific Grove so charming, on the way home, we made an offer on a cottage,” she said, “which we still own.

In 2016, we moved to the “Last Hometown,” where I finished my first novel and all of those that have followed. A town that inspires such community and creativity is a great place to write.” “Six Days in Bombay,” will be available at River House Books at, The Crossroads Carmel and at Bookworks in Pacific Grove. Joshi will launch her book at Santa Catalina School on April 29, with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m.