★ 03/28/2022
Nagendra (Cities and Canopies: Trees in Indian Cities ) makes her fiction debut with an exceptional series launch. In 1921, 19-year-old Kaveri Murthy, who has a passion for advanced mathematics, lives just outside the sprawling city of Bangalore. While Kaveri and her physician husband, Ramu, are attending a reception at the prestigious Century Club, the body of a pimp is found murdered in the garden. When the deputy inspector of the local police force arrives to investigate, Kaveri confides that she saw the dead man in the garden with his hands around the throat of a beautiful woman. Kaveri’s desire to see justice done takes her from the bastions of British wealth to humble mud-floored shacks. By placing her intelligent and clear-eyed protagonists in the multilayered and multicultural milieu of colonial India, Nagendra, a university professor in Bangalore, imbues this mystery with a rich, edifying, and authentic feel. She rounds out the volume with easy-to-follow recipes for dishes like spiced rice with lentils, a welcome change from the sugary fare that culinary cozy recipes typically offer. Readers will hope Kaveri and Ramu will be back soon. Agent: Priya Doraswamy, Lotus Literary. (May)
"Set in colonial India in 1921, this debut mystery, the first in a projected series, makes full use of the oppressive British rule of the time, matched by the oppressive treatment of women, to highlight the ingenuity and bravery of a young woman determined to solve a murder. Nagendra's evocation of setting is riveting, and her use of colonial history is thoroughly fascinating, with devastating depictions of the airy condescension of the British. A fine start to a promising series."
"The Bangalore Detectives Club is the latest entry into the recent flowering of India-based crime fiction. Nagendra’s novel introduces us to Raj-era 1920s Bangalore and her calculus-loving amateur sleuth Kaveri Murthy. A cosy mystery that warmly illuminates a time and place not often examined in fiction.
"Tantalizing and intriguing, The Bangalore Detective Club evokes the Golden Age of detective fiction with a romantic flair. In Kaveri Murthy, the lovely, impish and mathematically-inclined wife of Ramu, a Bangalore doctor, Nagendra offers readers a delightful amateur sleuth capable of drawing on the emerging forensics of the day to resolve a local murder. Throughout, Nagendra beautifully captures Bangalore in 1921, a city of contrasts, combining evocative period detail with insights into the social and political complexity of the region. A wonderful start to an enchanting new series!
The Bangalore Detective Club is a gorgeous debut mystery that introduces Kaveri Murthy, a young wife living a conservative household who applies her prodigious intelligence to solve a murder that threatens to tear apart genteel 1920s colonial Bangalore. Kaveri is a charming and fearless sleuth, trooping from elite social clubs to humble districts to ensure the right culprit is charged with murder. Nagendra brilliantly shares the landscape, social customs and history of South India in this spellbinding novel. I eagerly await the next Kaveri mystery.
"I absolutely adored The Bangalore Detectives Club, a beautifully painted picture of a woman's life in 1920s India. Kaveri is a compelling character, headstrong, clever and dogged, and not at all deterred by the constraints of her position and gender. A fantastic book."
"For historical mystery and cozy mystery fans, armchair travel to 1920s Bangalore, where newly married Kaveri ends up at a party that instead turns into a murder mystery. Soon she’s investigating the case herself using her logical brain, talent for mathematics, and the medical expertise of her husband."
"Harini Nagendra takes us to wonderfully unfamiliar world in this delightful debut mystery. Colonial India is on the verge of gaining its independence from the British, and new bride Kaveri Murthy is also looking to gain her independence from the strict culture in which she was raised. You will love watching her blossom as she makes new friends and strives to save an innocent woman from a charge of murder. I couldn’t put it down."
"The first in an effervescent new mystery series by the ecology professor Harini Nagendra, The Bangalore Detectives Club turns the clock back a century. This is a treat for historical mystery lovers looking for a new series to savor (or devour)."
The New York Times Book Review - Sarah Weinman
"From page one we plunge into the exuberant cacophony of 1920s Bangalore, right there beside Kaveri Murthy in her adopted city: the drawing-rooms and dirt lanes, the gardens and brothels, the temples and jails. Nagendra's depiction of an awkward but tender new marriage is a delight, and who couldn't help but cheer for Kaveri as she swims in her sari, studies in secret, and commits herself to the pursuit of justice?
A classic whodunnit with the added appeal of a female sleuth in colonial India. For the Western reader, a fascinating glimpse into customs and a mindset very different from our own.
"Harini takes us on an enjoyable trip back in time with a spunky young woman for company. When the resourceful Kaveri surreptitiously plays amateur sleuth, we find that Bangalore of the 1920s is as full of deceit as it is of prejudices. Kaveri's insatiable curiosity is matched only by her determination as she throws off the shackles that fettered women a hundred years ago."
I loved The Bangalore Detectives Club mostly because I love Kaveri and Ramu and exploring 1920s Bangalore through their eyes. Kaveri especially is charming and practical and despite her age and inexperience (19 years old, newly wed and new to Bangalore) uses her position—as a doctor’s wife and as a woman who can speak to women who wouldn't speak to a man—to clear an innocent and expose a murderer.
"This lush mystery will transport you to heady 1920s Bangalore, where new bride Kaveri stumbles into sleuthing—while dragging her doctor-husband into the fray. Mouth-watering fashion and food set against simmering colonial intrigue in this delicious whodunit can be devoured in one sitting."
"Told with real warmth and wit, in The Bangalore Detective Club , Harini Nagendra has created an intricate and fiendish mystery with a wonderful duo of amateur sleuths Kaveri and Ramu at its heart, and capturing the atmosphere and intensity of Bangalore in the roaring twenties. I can’t wait for the next installment. A perfect read for fans of Alexander McCall Smith and Vaseem Khan."
"Nagendra’s fiction debut is an excellent series starter, set in 1920s Bangalore. Kaveri, newly wed to handsome doctor Ramu, and biding her time until she can return to the study of mathematics, accidentally witnesses a murder at a social event and uses her skills to try to identify the killer with Ramu assisting. In a layered and well-nuanced show-don’t-tell writing style, Nagendra skillfully contrasts India’s burgeoning national independence movement with the more constrained situation of its women, especially those at the bottom of the caste system. Kaveri and Ramu—despite being novice sleuths—make a great pair in this atmospheric and charming mystery."
"Women have made serious inroads with historical mysteries, and the Bangalore Detectives Club is a perfect example. Authored by an Indian professor of ecology, the story is rich with the sights, sounds, tastes, and politics of southern India in the 1920s under British Colonial rule. One of the book’s strengths is how the heavier themes are balanced by the sweetness of the relationship between Kaveri and her husband."
"Set in colonial India in 1921, this debut mystery, the first in a projected series, makes full use of the oppressive British rule of the time, matched by the oppressive treatment of women, to highlight the ingenuity and bravery of a young woman determined to solve a murder. Nagendra's evocation of setting is riveting, and her use of colonial history is thoroughly fascinating, with devastating depictions of the airy condescension of the British. A fine start to a promising series."
