This review contains affiliate links, which earn me a small commission when you click and purchase, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my small business and allowing me to continue providing you a reliable resource for clean book ratings.
Kaveri is an energetic, intelligent, and persistent woman. She has recently married and moved to Bangalore, where she is a complete stranger. Since this is 1929 India, she is also expected to behave within a very specific set of rules, not only for her gender, but also for her societal standing as the wife of a doctor. She was raised with much less stringent standards, so she struggles to maintain proper decorum.
When dead bodies appear and people are being attacked, Kaveri is drawn into the mystery by what seems to be a lack of logic among the crimes. Initially, she simply wants to solve a puzzle. But as she gets to know some of the individuals involved, her motives change in ways that may threaten her (and her husband’s) standing in Bangalore society.
Indian community structure is mostly foreign to me. I have had very superficial exposure to caste attitudes and the position of women within that country. Since the author is a native, and actually lives in Bangalore, I am confident that what I read in this mystery book is accurate, and it is pretty amazing. In fact, it is so amazing that I really wish she had spent a little more time with that aspect of the story, instead of just providing the simplified descriptions that she did. There is also not nearly enough ink describing the historical dispute between the British government and Indians that wish to be rid of them. This could have provided so much more depth to the characters, and I was mildly perturbed that it was not more fully explored.
I was very surprised at how a few significant men in Kaveri’s life seemed to possess 21st-century attitudes toward her activities in detection, thus propelling the plot. I admit I was disappointed that Kaveri did not have to overcome more barriers than she did. Everyone and everything simply made room for her intrusions into places and situations that she should not have been allowed, based on the information provided by the author.
The mystery itself was well written, and faint clues were dropped all along the way. I can’t say I solved it very early in the reading experience, but as the obvious suspects dropped off the radar one by one, it was not difficult to see where this was going. And yet it was a very enjoyable, relaxing, and pleasant clean mystery book.
Rated: Mild. Six instances of three low-grade swear words.
