eyes.2c Reviews

The Tea Planter’s Secret  (Ceylon series #2) by Clare Flynn       ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A young married woman leaves Ceylon to accompany her father on a trip back to Oxford. Stella Baxter has acted as a researcher for her father, Sir Michael Polegate, an esteemed Professor of Anthropology who’d been working on an ethnographic study contrasting the Tamils of northern Ceylon and India. It’s over eighteen months before Stella can return home to her beloved husband Norton. Her father has died and Stella has a baby girl born upon arrival in England, a baby she can scarcely look at. Complex in plot and relationships—the dreadful Bertie Frobisher, assistant to the Governor and bully; the Governor’s wayward daughter; Stella’s brother, who apart from being an unprincipled lothario, steals his father’s and Stella’s works. Just  a  few of the subplots moving through the story.  Interesting read although somewhat thin at times. I’m undecided about picking up the series, altho...

Blood Caste  (Murder in the Deccan #1) by Shylashri Shankar         ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A deviously, thrilling mystery set against the backdrop of 1895 Hyderabad, India. I’m particularly enamoured of mysteries set during the British Raj occupation of India. The  British deviousness of the times, the Indian nobles seeking to hold onto their territories, all ripe for murder and intrigue, injustice and corruption. Of course it’s not all that simplistic. Several women have been murdered after the style of Jack the Ripper leading to sensationalism and fear that Jack the Ripper had arrived in Nazim and was loose in the city. One man, Acting Chief Inspector Soobramania, knew this was impossible. He’d been in London at the time working for a secret Whitehall Police unit. A Brahmin, Soob has returned to Hyderabad and now is in charge of the Nizam City Police. His English counterpart, Inspector Bill Wilberforce in charge the Residency Police enclave had also been in London a...

The Silversmith's Puzzle  (Captain Jim and Lady Diana Mysteries #4)   by Nev March                  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ As always I’m absolutely consumed with Captain Jim Agnihotri and his wife Diana. I’m so glad they’ve returned to India—a breath taking, colorful and magical place, along with its squalor, religious differences, underlying tensions and gathering troubles for the colonial British. Diana’s parsi family welcomes them. Diana’s parsi friends and acquaintance? No! Jim and Diana are beyond the tight knit community’s social pale. Jim hurts to see his wife treated so. Diana walks through it all, sad but unrepentant for having married outside the circle. (I love how they relate with each other) However that’s not their main concern. Adi, Diana’s brother, has been arrested for the murder of his friend and business partner Satya Rastogi. Satya was the scion of a powerful parsi family who are jewellers.  What Jim and Diana will unco...

Homicide in the Indian Hills  (Jane Wunderly Mystery #6)   by Erica Ruth Neubauer      ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Jane Wunderly and the delicious Englishman Redvers are now married and in India as part of Redvers’ job as a secret agent with the British Government. Actually he’s a spy. It is supposedly their honeymoon but when  an  english woman Jane has admired, Gretchen Beetner, is attacked by a tiger Jane’s shocked. Except something’s off. Jane and Redvers view Gretchen’s body at the morgue. This was no tiger attack Gretchen had been shot. India is in the throes of changing governing procedures. Redvers is attending a political conference at the hill station Ooty, (Ootacmund)  in southern India. Their investigations will lead them into dark territory, uncovering corruption, scandals, poisonings and murder. A lively mystery with wonderful leading characters. A Kensington ARC via NetGalley.                     ...

Six Days in Bombay  by Alka Joshi         ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ As India moves towards independence so does Sona Falstaff. Sona is a nurse in the Wadia Hospital in Bombay. Europe is galloping towards war, India towards freedom from the British Raj, Sona finds herself also on the cusp, taking steps into the unknown. Sona is a compassionate and dedicated nurse with a lively sense of humor. Amongst her  patients number a vivacious painter, Mira Novak and a charming elderly rascal, Dr. Ralph Stoddard. Both will figure into Sona’s search for herself. Sona is an Anglo-Indian. At a time when India is looking to govern itself, that mixed heritage becomes a barrier for her. She’s neither fish nor fowl. As usual, Alka Joshi draws us into the colors of life in late 1930’s India. The emotions are all captured, brimming with reality. Sona’s journey from the hospital in Bombay to Europe, on a quest for her painter friend, is a journey of self awareness, of independence, and of...

The Bombay Prince (Perveen Mistry #3) by Sujata Massey              ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ As always Preveen Mistry, a Parsi separated woman (unheard of), is an energising force as she quietly, yet forcefully, undertakes the various cases she’s given as a solicitor in her father’s law firm. The time in history is interesting. It’s 1921 and Edward, the Prince of Wales is visiting Bombay as part of an extended royal visit. Unrest is in the air. The Independence Activists want changes. The British authorities are concerned about possible attacks on the Prince and his entourage.  Preveen has been consulted by a young female student, Ferny Cuttingmaster, from the prestigious Woodburn College where her friend Alice Hobson-Jones teaches. Freny seeks legal advice for the College’s Student Union around activism. What she doesn’t foresee is that Freny will be involved in a fatal accident, and the more Preveen delves into the aspects of that, the more likely it appears...

A Hanging at Dawn: A Bess Crawford Short Story (Bess Crawford #11.5)   by Charles Todd   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A political mystery set in 1900 India. At this time a place of flux, with various kingdoms vieing to retain what autonomy they have, and unease at all levels of society, from the streets to the zenana. I had never read a Bess Crawford mystery and this introduction already has me marking down books to read. Todd states you needn't be a fan to read the prequel, and let me just add that after reading this, if you're like me, you'll definitely be a fan! I love the character of the woman behind the beginning of the story, Melinda Crawford, the well connected widow of a British army officer, who sees a young man in pain and decides to do all she can to assist him.  She arranges an alternative path for young Simon Brandon in India where he excels at his now chosen path, until accused of murder when in charge of the Indian Princess Parvati's protection detail. That's also whe...

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....

The Jasmine Wife: A sweeping epic historical romance novel for women   by Jane Coverdale     "Sara Archer, a good plain name for a good plain girl, though with her unusual colouring and high cheekbones she should have been a beauty." Magical story of a young English woman, born in India during the time of the British Raj, and sent to family in England when her parents died. A free thinker and member of a Female Emancipation group, Sara decides to marry Charles Fitzroy and return to India to the warmth she remembers, physically and psychologically. Her return to India is put off for months as her aunt falls seriously ill. Unfortunately in India Sara finds herself in the middle of very uptight, narrow minded compatriots and having to "fit in" to a hidebound society she wants freedom from, who see the Indians and their culture as inferior and barbaric. This flies in the face of her memories and her emancipation thoughts. Upon her arrival in Sara she meets the ...