This light read from Harini Nagendra is like an east Indian cozy, the first in the "Bangalore Detectives Club" series. Kaveri Murthy is a recently married young woman whose husband Ramu is a doctor at the local hospital in Bangalore. Set in the caste, class and gender structured Raj of 1921, stirrings for independence are afoot. Here is most of the plot from Publishers Weekly: "... Kaveri Murthy, who has a passion for advanced mathematics, lives just outside the sprawling city of Bangalore. While Kaveri and her physician husband, Ramu, are attending a reception at the prestigious Century Club, the body of a pimp is found murdered in the garden. When the deputy inspector of the local police force arrives to investigate, Kaveri confides that she saw the dead man in the garden with his hands around the throat of a beautiful woman. Kaveri's desire to see justice done takes her from the bastions of British wealth to humble mud-floored shacks. By placing her intelligent and clear-eyed protagonists in the multilayered and multicultural milieu of colonial India, Nagendra...imbues this mystery with a rich, edifying, and authentic feel."
Booklist calls this book "A fine start to a promising series." They describe Kaveri as ingenuous and brave, intelligent an charming. Her husband and the local police superintendent, although worried for Kaveri's safety chasing after a murderer, applaud her investigative skills. They make comparison to the "No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency" series by Alexander McCall Smith, and also to the "Nancy Drew" series mysteries. You'll like all the characters here. A fun read.
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