Pegasus Crime, 304 pages, $26.95
Murder is an act most foul, and its portrayal in crime stories can be quite graphic. In 1920s India, there was overcrowding, shantytowns, beggars, a sense that life was cheap for a certain percentage of the population. There’s nothing sweet about the act at the center of a murder mystery or the problems emblematic of British-controlled India of that time period. The days of the Raj were not happy ones for the colonized, even if they were of a high caste or well-placed family. There was bigotry, racism, misogyny, religious persecution. Given all of that, “The Bangalore Detectives Club” is sweet.
It’s not as though all of the problems above are glossed over, either. Author Harini Negendra does the almost impossible task of including all those elements without making her story heavily laden with bitterness. Negendra does that with the use of her light and optimistic main characters.
Kaveri has just moved to Bangalore from her town to live with her husband, Ramu. They have been married for three years, but only started to live together after Kaveri reached a certain age. Fortunately, Ramu is a good husband with modern ideas, honed by his years in London as a student. It’s that kind of book. Kaveri cannot cook, so that is one of the wifely duties she undertakes to improve. But that’s not why you are reading the book — although the food sounds delicious (recipes follow in an appendix). When murder intrudes, her educated, mathematical, Sherlock-loving brain revs up. Sometimes accompanied by a grandmotherly type from next door with not enough to do (Uma aunty), she decides to solve the murder of a pimp, whose body was found on the grounds of the Century Club, where Kaveri and Ramu were having a fancy dinner with other doctors.
To be fair, there is a personal element to her involvement. The main suspect is her milkman. He would bring his cow to Kaveri’s house, milk it there, and sell the milk to Kaveri. When Manju suddenly stops showing up and his younger brother, Venu, takes over, the plot thickens. What has happened to the reliable Manju who was supporting his family with the cow’s milk and work as a helper at the hospital. Surprisingly, he has shown up as a waiter at the Century Club dinner, and Kaveri is dying to talk to him. She doesn’t get the chance because she witnesses confrontations on the lawn between Manju and a beautiful woman and between the beautiful woman and the pimp. Then Manju disappears.
Soon after, Manju’s long-suffering, pregnant wife is hit over the head and lapses into a coma. Then one of the doctors suffers the same fate. What is going on?
Flavored with both the British and Indian — I think most of the Indians are Hindi — points of view, Negendra gives us a good, gentle look at the clash of cultures.
Kaveri is young, smart, and intrepid. Caste or social status does not bother her. She socializes with the British upper class and comforts a prostitute. Because of her husband’s open mind, she learns how to drive a car, cook with her husband, and sift clues together. It doesn’t hurt that the investigation’s police detective, Ismail, is open minded as well! Ramu and Ismail give her access to clues, listen to her reasoning, and have her back.
This was quite enjoyable.
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