Crossword Genius

The girl from Lima is reading (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

perusal

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'is reading' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'the girl from lima' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'girl' could be 'sal' (feminine given name) and 'sal' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'peru' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for perusal that I've seen before include "Scanning, reading" , "Thorough read-through" , "Thorough reading" , "thorough scan" , "Careful reading" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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