A Murder Mystery + Rich Historical Backdrop
I love a good murder mystery. I also love a good historical novel. And I love being immersed in different cultures. Enter The Bangalore Detective’s Club by Harini Nagendra.
Plot Summary
Set in 1920s Bangalore, India, Nagendra introduces us to Kaveri – a young, intelligent woman moving to the city to marry her husband Ramu, a handsome doctor. Kaveri and Ramu are settling in as husband and wife and figuring out their new quiet life together when tragedy strikes at a doctor’s dinner. Their dinner party at the Century Club suddenly becomes a murder scene, and Kaveri is determined to prove the innocence of a vulnerable woman tied to the crime.
Why Bangalore Detective’s Fell Flat for Me
As interesting as the book description was (and as beautiful as the cover was!) Surprisingly, I didn’t love the story as a whole.
For someone who has always enjoyed crime shows, I just didn’t love this. I struggled to pinpoint why all through reading it, but here are a few of the reasons I’ve identified:
- The book is advertised as a husband-and-wife crime-solving duo. While there were things I liked about Ramu and Kaveri, I didn’t feel like we really got to know them apart from their involvement in the murder mystery. It seemed to me that everything we learned about the two of them and every bit of growth in their [arranged] marriage was overshadowed by the murder. Almost every conversation they had was about the murder.
- I didn’t find either Ramu or Kaveri particularly interesting. They simultaneously felt like individuals out of their time with this modern marriage dynamic in 1920s India and also somehow stereotypical. We have the headstrong, so-invested-in-this-murder-she-can’t-do-anything-else, bookworm, brilliant wife who doesn’t fit the mold of the traditional Indian housewife and then her handsome, humble doctor husband who lets her do whatever she wants and helps her on the side.
- I liked their supportive and unproblematic marriage. I simply didn’t feel like it was developed enough for readers to care about them or thought it fit with the culture in the book.
- The book reads very much like a crime TV drama, which is usually done in 45 minutes. It moved at a quick pace; all the focus was on the murder and its investigation; but it was a 30+ chapter book. The crime wasn’t that mind-blowing to me or that complicated. I feel like this would’ve been a better fit as a 45 minute show on TV than as a book. It read rather repetitively at a certain point. I’m not sure if that is just how I feel about murder mysteries in general or if it was Nagendra’s style. Either way, eventually, I just wanted them to figure it out so we could move on.
Additional Books to Add to Your TBR
If you like murder mystery books, this is definitely a series to try. Bangalore Detective’s Club is book 1 out of 4 (each with stunning cover art). Find them below!
Final Thoughts
These are probably the main things that contributed to me not being too into Bangalore Detective’s Club. However, I did like the cultural aspects included.
I thought the book was fairly clean and appropriate for general audiences, which is always refreshing. I listened to the audiobook and enjoyed how the narrator read with different accents; it brought the book to life!
It was still a fun book; I just don’t think that genre or style is my personal favorite.
Copyright Harini Nagendra and Pegasus Crime. Image from Amazon.
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