Midnight at Malabar House
Ratings5
Average rating3.2
15
Ratings5
Average rating3.2
*** WINNER OF THE CWA SAPERE BOOKS HISTORICAL DAGGER 2021 *** 'The leading character is the deftly drawn Persis Wadia, the country's first female detective. She's a wonderful creation and this is a hugely enjoyable book' ANN CLEEVES 'This is historical crime fiction at its best - a compelling mix of social insight and complex plotting with a thoroughly engaging heroine. A highly promising new series'Mail on Sunday 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 unit of police officers. 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.
Series
3 primary booksMalabar House is a 3-book series with 3 primary works first released in 2020 with contributions by Vaseem Khan.
Reviews with the most likes.
This was absolute trashfire.
First of all, the writer was born in the UK so his views on the hatred that Pakistan and India harbour towards each other being stupid, are invalid. The main character's mother dying in a rally and her just accepting it as her mother being a victim of “circumstance” rather than the fault of the British, is just infuriating. Also the protagonist just ended up liking a white boy, the fuck?
Secondly, the writer is a male and 9/10 times male authors cannot writer female characters for the life of them. The only two categories of women to them are either “pick- me's” or “whores”. This was another one of the cases. And the main character being a woman...well you can just guess how it played out.
Thirdly, 95% of the characters were overweight. The writer conveniently made all of the problematic characters overweight.
The only redeeming quality this book had was that it was easy to read and fast paced. Only slightly better than the Midnight Club.
