Harini Nagendra takes readers to Bangalore, India in 1921 in her debut mystery, The Bangalore Detectives Club. It’s an excellent traditional mystery that introduces us to a country twenty-five years before its independence, a country where class structure is still important, and the British and Indian people seldom mingle.But, as the wife of a doctor employed by the British government in a hospital, Kaveri Murthy has the opportunity to move between worlds. Kaveri Murthy, nineteen, a bride, an educated mathematician, a doctor’s wife who becomes a lady detective.

Kaveri knows she’s lucky in her marriage. Her sweet, kind husband, Rama, is from a wealthy, prominent family. But, she yearns for more than spending her days supervising servants and cooking meals. She knows her mother-in-law disapproves of her education, so she only sneaks in work in her precious math books when her mother-in-law is out of the house. However, Kaveri knows she makes her husband proud when she dresses in a beautiful sari and they attend a doctors’ party at the local Century Club. She has the chance to meet some of the other wives there. But, the ever curious Kaveri also has an important mission. She’s determined to talk with the local milkman who has abused his family, and has not provided funds for them lately. Manju also works at the hospital, and he’ll be working the party. Kaveri is determined to take him to task for abuse and neglect of his family.

Kaveri never has a chance to talk with Manju that night. As she searches for him, though, she witnesses unusual events in the garden at the club, an argument between Manju and a beautiful woman, an argument between that woman and a powerfully built man. When a body is found, killed with a kitchen knife, Kaveri insists on talking with Mr Ismail, the Deputy Inspector of the Wilson Gardens police station. She can tell the senior policeman that she recognizes the victim.

It isn’t long before the bored bride becomes an active participant in the police investigation. Ismail respects an intelligent woman, and he knows Kaveri can go places and talk with women who won’t answer to him. And, when one woman is attacked, and another one is arrested, Kaveri is determined to find answers. What would Sherlock Holmes or Lady Molly of Scotland Yard do in the course of an investigation? Kaveri follows in the footsteps of her literary heroes.

There’s so much to discover in The Bangalore Detectives Club, not just the solution to a mystery. Nagendra lives in Bangalore, and her day job as an ecologist fuels her interest in the history of Bangalore. She manages to insert details of women’s roles, women’s education, and the barriers of the caste system into the plot. While some women, such as Kaveri, were educated, others such as a beloved neighbor, could not read nor write, and the men in their lives wanted them to remain uneducated. The details of neighborhoods, clothing. and beliefs are slipped into the book. It’s set in 1921, twenty-five years before India achieved independence from the British Empire, but there are already traces of unrest.

While I love all the historical details that provide the atmosphere to this mystery, I also recognize that, in some ways, Nagendra made it easy for Kaveri to turn detective. Her husband becomes her accomplice, and provides opportunities that many husbands would not. And, Rama’s mother, Kaveri’s disapproving mother-in-law, is conveniently absent for much of the book. It will be interesting to see what happens if she’s present in a sequel.

I do hope there’s a sequel to The Bangalore Detectives Club. Harini Nagendra’s debut is filled with thought-provoking ideas. As I said, not just the mystery itself.

Harini Nagendra’s website is https://harininagendra.com/

The Bangalore Detectives Club by Harini Nagendra. Pegasus Crime, 2022. ISBN 9781639361595 (hardcover), 288p.

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