Altar of Ashes, a debut novel by a respected author of non-fiction, opens with two hunters witnessing a horror in the backwoods of Indiana: the rite of sati, with the bride on the funeral pyre a 10-year-old girl. The book, which pokes a multicultural hornet’s nest, was launched at the 2023 Frankfurt Book Fair.

The inciting incident draws the local prosecutor into a spectacular case revolving around religious toleration and cultural bigotry, which sweeps the town into a vortex of national publicity. His opponent in the courtroom an African-American giant of legal repute. The case is subsumed in the larger zeitgeist of American cultural confrontation, impelled toward its surprising resolution.

It’s been described by critics such Lily Andrews of Reader Views as, “A thriller that will unsettle your expectations at every turn. Westrate has a deep understanding of oppressive cultural practices and deals with them excellently here. With immaculate prose and an almost undemanding commitment to unadorned lucidity, he manages to steal your breath and capture your heart. The book leaves you empowered and enlightened as it incessantly punctures a foreign custom that is illegal in the United States. Brilliant with detail and palpitating with suspense, Altar of Ashes delivers a knuckle-hard plotline with an unforgettable set of characters.”

Diane Donovan, senior reviewer for Midwest Book Review, said “Bruce Westrate moves his story from a murder mystery to a legal encounter that embraces some of the undercurrents of adversity and prejudice in America today . . . he shatters emotions and preconceptions of what makes for good and bad legal precedents and how the past reaches out to influence present-day decisions. [Readers] will relish the questions and conundrums in Altar of Ashes, which ignites a sense of shame and revelation in the protagonist after the outcome is revealed.”