The Bangalore Detectives Club

I've found a new historical mystery series to enjoy. Set in 1920s India, The Bangalore Detectives Club was a pure delight for someone like me who prefers the cosier side of mysteries yet craves authentic historical detail and a vibrant, multi-facetted setting.

The sleuth is a young Indian wife determined to study mathematics, supported by her new(ish) husband, a doctor. Through them, a picture emerges of a new and exciting vision both gender relations and for their colonised country, while always keeping the story on a human, compassionate, and sweetly humorous scale. Even the - for me - unusual circumstance of instantly picking out the villain ("it can't be this easy," I thought; "this must be a red herring." ) barely impacted my enjoyment. I absolutely loved the three-dimensional characters and the dynamics of their interactions, the searching social and political commentary, and the deft writing - all treated with a light touch, a lot of heart, and passionate caring.

I know very little of Indian culture so pretty new for me this. Set in 1920's Bangalore. The MC, Kaveri is 19 years old and just off to live with her husband in another city, their parents have arranged the marriage. Lucky for her he's a pretty modern man and doesn't mind her studying math. At a dinner party at some fancy club with English people a man is murder and Kaveri who loves murder mystery books gets sleuthing...

It's another meh for me. Kaveri and hubby never runs into any issues and wraps up the mystery with a nice little bow at the end. No challenges, no conflicts. For example, Kaveri's husband is a modern man but his mother is not, this could be used to add conflict, have MIL causing issues for Kaveri but no. I can't recall a moment in this book when Kaveri had to use her head to get out of problem.

I would like to say that, as a whole, I liked this book quite a lot - as a historical fiction novel.

Kaveri and her husband Ramu are both likable characters, together and apart. Their relationship is sweet and understated.

I don't actually know a lot about this time of Indian history, but it feels real. The author has really been able to capture the class differences and some of the general stress that was put on the country during this time. And with all the sights and sounds - and food! - that is described, it felt enmeshed with the culture.

Which is all things that I really appreciated.

The mystery aspect lets the book down a bit. It is the focus of the story, but it also feels like it's just a vehicle for this quiet slice of life historical tale.

Kaveir - as our main sleuth - ‘investigates' a lot - but doesn't really do much. She makes a lot of lists and has ‘tea' with people (rather, what the Indian equivalent is, because she visits and hosts a lot of people whose sole reason for gathering is food and gossip).

The killer was...painfully obvious as soon as I put any thought to it at all. Which was about 40% through the book when I felt like the mystery aspect was actually finally starting.

However, if that's all it was, the book would have likely gotten a four star rating from me. Because the book is genuinely enjoyable.

But, honestly, the writing itself dropped a good solid star off the book. Because I feel that at times the technical aspect of the writing lets the book down in a huge way.

I did a little search and found out that the publisher - Pegasus - is an indie publisher. I don't know what that means for an editor, honestly, but this book needed a good copy editor.

Head hopping.
I hate this with a fiery passion. I have quit reading books because of head hopping. If I had been reading this book, I would have dropped it because of the head hopping. (As an audio book, I found that it actually bothered me less.)

Also, there's a framing device for the story. Or...well, half a framing device.
So, the story starts with this stranger coming into town looking for Kaveri - apparently. He trespasses on to her property, does the entering part of b&e into a shed that is on her property and...reads the story of her first case in a notebook. Which is the case that we get to hear about in this book.

First of all, I don't like that sort of framing device. I don't really buy into it and at random times I keep remembering that ‘this isn't happening to Kaveri now'. Especially with the ‘dangerous' climax wherein she confronts the murderer and the murderer is going to kill her. ... We already know Kaveri doesn't die because of the framing device at the beginning of the story.

Then, to add insult to (irrelevant) injury, the framing device is forgotten! That's right, it does not even show up again, even for a little epilogue or anything. It has zero bearing on the story and, truly should not have been there at all if that's all the use there was for it.

It also felt to me like the author had written the story in chunks and had forgotten what had been written previously, at times. There were scenes that directly contradicted something that happened fairly recently, a lack of information on how something came to be and reacting in surprise to the same information twice in about as many chapters.

Most of this kind of sloughed off by the half to two-thirds point. Which was good.

I do have some interest in reading more of this series, because the characters are likable enough and I enjoy the way the author writes about India. I just hope that the author grows and develops in these weak spots - and still cannot figure how an editor missed them.