Arjun Raj Gaind

In 1909, Rajpore, Major William Russell, is found dead. As the Maharajah Sikander Singh enjoys solving problems and is bored, he decides to investigate and solve the case. Because Russell turns out to be of bad character there are plenty of suspects to be examined.
The mystery was fair enough but I am not sure there was one character that I liked, with a lot of the British characters to be just cliches. Also there was certainly too much description of places and buildings for my taste which slowed the pace of the book.
A NetGalley Book… (lisätietoja)

The tale is entertaining enough, but I had quite a few issues with the book. The US spelling is jarring in a context that is so decidedly British. A glossary for the many Anglo-Indian terms is sadly lacking. Having read my fair share of books about the Raj, from Flashman to the Jewel in the Crown, I knew a lot of them, but not all. The style is over-the-top, flowery and piling one metaphor upon the other. The descriptions read like a catalogue for luxury merchandise, the cologne is not simple eau de cologne, but has to be Farina etc. It is riddled with clichés, from the resident gone native, over the stiff-upper-lip murdered resident, to the incompetent native servants and the loyal family retainer.
Finally, there are too many plain mistakes. Having a resident spend four decades on the station from the Mutiny onwards puts him in 1897, not 1904. Geographical distances would not have been measured in kilometres. The French words are usually mis-spelled, etc etc etc. And most disappointing of all: in a book written presumably by an Indian I hoped for an Indian point-of-view on life in a small princely state. Instead we get the same arrogance and prejudice the British displayed. Okay, so he was educated at Eton and Oxford, but at the time this is set, wouldn’t he have met with serious racism and picked up a healthy skepticism of the superiority of the white race? In fact, he is treated with disdain on the occasion of a visit to the club, and demonstrates the same submission and kow-towing he berates his own subjects for. Not to mention a truly ludicrous solution to the case. To say more would be spoilering, but it is truly inept… (lisätietoja)

King George V, Emperor of India, is about to arrive in Delhi for his very public coronation. The who's who of Indian society, Maharajahs and princes, and members of the British Raj, have arrived in their thousands. The Maharajahs and princes have set up pavilions and courts, all designed to show how rich and influential they are.

And in the middle of it all, in the King's own pavilion, an Indian dancer is found murdered. The King is due to arrive within 48 hours and Sikander Singh, Maharajah of Rajpore, who would much rather be a detective than a Maharajah, is asked by the Viceroy, to solve the mystery.

Blending fictitious with actual characters, the author presents us with a panoply of suspects, and authentic historical detail on a grand scale. I was impressed above all by the amount of research that must have gone into the writing of this book. The overall effect is sumptuous beyond measure.

If historical India is your "thing", then you will enjoy this.… (lisätietoja)

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me a copy of the book to review.
This is a historical murder mystery set during the time of the Raj when the British were in control of India.
The King of England, George V, who is also Emperor of India, is visiting India. He is the first British king to do so. Huge celebrations have been scheduled to mark the visit and all the Indian maharajas have come to Delhi to pay homage to the king. The Durbar is a lavish tent city which has been constructed for them. Shortly before the king's arrival the body of a native dancer is found hanging near the king's quarters in the Durbar.
Sakinder Singh, the Maharaja of Raypole, is well known among the British ruling class and his peer maharajas for being a curious busybody. He is therefore assigned the task of solving the murder mystery, but has only a couple of days before the arrival of the king to do it. His trusty manservant is there to assist him, but he is saddled with a British army officer to supposedly keep an eye on him.
There is no shortage of suspects. It seems the dancer had many visitors during the days before her death -- someone actually maintained a list of them. As Sakinder goes about interviewing those on the list, even more visitors are discovered and questioned. Several of these visitors are unpleasant or just plain nasty people but Sakinder thinks none of them is the killer. Finally, a chance discovery provides the missing clue to Sakinder.
Sakinder is the star of the show -- he's a unique mixture of tradition and modern man. Similarly, there's an ambivalence about the British rule. The one nationalist character is a power-hungry weasel, while the British characters (except for a gang of young nobles) are cast in a generally favourable light. The story is set in 1911, when British power was at its height and the old order was yet to be swept aside by World War 1. It's a snapshot of the times.
Among the British there is an arrogance towards the Indians. The book portrays the class distinctions prevalent in both Indian and British society. Among the maharajas there is distinction between a thirteen gun maharaja and a seventeen gun one; that's based on the number of guns in the salute they are given at events. There's similar distinctions among the various regiments of the British army: the Coldstream Guards outrank the Black Watch.
This is the second book in what I hope becomes a series.
Recommended.… (lisätietoja)