I have been discovering many smaller South Asian fiction writers lately. It’s surprising just how many writers and series I have found in the local library here, I wasn’t even aware of them back home. They have all been quite good books too – not sure why they are not more well-known than they are, or maybe I have had my head in the sand and not been following the right influencers. Who knows 🤷‍♀️.
Anyway, one book series I have been enjoying is Vaseem Khan’s Malabar House series.
About Midnight at Malabar House
Bombay, New Year’s Eve, 1949
As India celebrates the arrival of a momentous new decade, Inspector Persis Wadia stands vigil in the basement of Malabar House, home to the city’s most unwanted police unit. Six months after joining the force, she remains India’s first female police detective, mistrusted, sidelined, and now consigned to the midnight shift.
And so, when the phone rings to report the murder of prominent English diplomat Sir James Herriot, the country’s most sensational case falls into her lap.
As 1950 dawns and India prepares to become the world’s largest republic, Persis, accompanied by Scotland Yard criminalist Archie Blackfinch, finds herself investigating a case that is becoming more political by the second. Navigating a country and society in turmoil, Persis, smart, stubborn, and untested in the crucible of male hostility that surrounds her, must find a way to solve the murder, whatever the cost.
~ Synopsis from goodreads
My Review
This is one universal book that’s easy to like and recommend. In our family, we all have very diverse reading tastes, and book recommendations and criticism can get heated and spicy very easily. My mum detests anything too complex, with too many POVs, and she isn’t a fan of writers who go on and on (her words). My daughter needs a character she can root for, and she’s also very woke and does not like anything that strays too far from her modern mindset. I need a certain level of complexity and finesse in plot and character development to get me enthusiastic.
Well, this was one book that hit the spot for all of us – such a rare thing that I have to note it in the blog.
- The main character, Persis Wadia, is incredibly likable and easy to root for. She has enough backstory to make her interesting, and her character is modern enough to suit our sensibilities while remaining true to her time (nascent post-independence India). There is also enough intrigue with her partnership with Archie. I see it evolving in later books in a similar way to the camaraderie between Cormoran and Robin in the Cormoran Strike series, which is a good thing.
- The setting is very realistic for Bombay of the time. My mum really appreciated some of the smaller details – historical, social, and geographical that were really true to the time. I loved the sophistication and the details of how life actually was, the conflicted loyalties, and how people were trying to remove the yoke of the British Raj but hadn’t really gotten there. It’s quite an interesting look into a time not too far behind us (I mean, my mum and grandmum lived through these years), but in terms of evolution, our modern-day India has grown and evolved in almost unrecognizable ways.
- The mystery is also pretty sound, and the investigative methodology is very good. There are no sudden Hallelujah moments; the clues are laid out logically, and if we pay attention, we can also come to the same conclusions as Persis. There were no unnecessary or over-elaborate twists, just a solid police procedural.
Overall, I really liked this book. I think it is a promising start to the series, and I plan to read books 2 and 3 (there are 7 books in the series) in fairly quick succession.
Have you read this series? Is it well-known? I started googling once I started this book, and it’s got fairly good reviews. It’s probably just been me who hasn’t been clued in. But also, this is such a good idea for a streaming show, I am surprised it’s not been picked up by Netflix or Prime.
