Murder and more! Wow!

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Murder in Old Bombay by Nev March    

*****



I don't know why I'm so enamored with historical fiction/mysteries set particularly in the Indian subcontinent. But I am totally hooked! Amidst the Indian struggles for Independence, the influence of the East India Company and the results of British rule, there's much to set as a background that beckons.
In this mystery, placed mostly in Bombay (now Mumbai) of 1892, an injured illegitimate Eurasian soldier formerly of the Fourteenth Light Dragoons, until recently stationed in Burma and the Northwest Frontier, Captain James Agnihotri, is recovering from terrible injuries incurred in Karachi. James reads a newspaper report about the suicides of two young women and decides there are too many loose ends. He's particularly struck by a letter to the editor written by the husband of one of the women. The young man proclaims, "They are gone but I remain."  Sentiments of grief James can relate to, particularly after Karachi. He determines to call on his inner Sherlock Holmes to do all he can to investigate the truth of the matter. Firstly as an investigate journalist and then as a Private Investigator for  James takes up the baton.
Captain Jim's quest takes him inside the workings of a warm and wealthy Zoroastrian Parsee family, the Framji's, whom he comes to admire, even as he falls further into danger and intrigue. For the reader it's a trip through the Anglo-Indian politics and cultural etiquettes of the day. Along with a journey of prejudices, "Indians did not tolerate the mingling of races any more than the English." The power of the British Raj in certain places hovers in the background, in others it has no jurisdiction. Jim falls in love but must remain aloof. He finds a family and looses it. He finds himself! So many wonderful characters from the young girl he adopts as a sister to the determined young woman he cares for.
A radiant, emotionally satisfying read that unravels towards a rewarding and complex end. 

A St. Martin's Press ARC via NetGalley 

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