urbaer reviewed The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey
Review of 'The widows of Malabar Hill' on 'GoodReads'
3 stars
Well, three and a half let's say.
I like the setting and I like the main and supporting characters. The setting not only comes with tensions between castes, between the English and Indians but also with the complications of the police and legal systems in a society with various religious practices. And the author does a wonderful job of making this very clear and easy to understand.
Where it falls down for me is in the pacing and the mystery itself. I know I complain about this a fair bit, but at some point in a book if I have to ask myself "wasn't this supposed to be a murder mystery" and there's no corpse discovered, then there's a good chance I won't finish the book. I did have to ask myself that question, but because of the setting I hung on in there.
And part of the reasons for …
Well, three and a half let's say.
I like the setting and I like the main and supporting characters. The setting not only comes with tensions between castes, between the English and Indians but also with the complications of the police and legal systems in a society with various religious practices. And the author does a wonderful job of making this very clear and easy to understand.
Where it falls down for me is in the pacing and the mystery itself. I know I complain about this a fair bit, but at some point in a book if I have to ask myself "wasn't this supposed to be a murder mystery" and there's no corpse discovered, then there's a good chance I won't finish the book. I did have to ask myself that question, but because of the setting I hung on in there.
And part of the reasons for this was the constant flashbacks to Perveen's life before working for her father. Some of it is necessary, but it feels that it would have been nicer if we learnt more about her throughout the series. On the positive side, I guess there won't be too many flashbacks in the next book (I hope?).
In any case the mystery feels like it's solved mostly by an info dump that someone gives her near the very end of the book and so pfft... Anyway, hopefully the next book is better?