Murder in Old Bombay: A Mystery
It’s 1892. As Captain Jim Agnihotri lies in a Bombay hospital slowly recovering from serious injuries, he reads that two young women fell to their deaths from the university clock tower. In a letter to the editor, Adi, the husband of one and brother of the other, rejects the verdict of suicide and concludes, “They are gone but I remain.” This inspires Jim to unravel the mystery, in a long and tortuous journey that probes not only their deaths but his own difficult past.
The murder mystery, interesting in itself, serves also as a frame within which the author ranges widely. The attraction between Jim and Diana Framji, the sister of Adi, the bereaved husband, blossoms into romance; but he is Anglo-Indian and illegitimate, whereas she belongs to a wealthy, aristocratic Parsee family. Jim’s enquiries take him to the Northern Frontier during an outbreak of raiding by hostile tribes, and he rescues several child refugees and a party of soldiers cut off in enemy territory. Later, he leads the rescue of a group of captives, mainly women, who have been abducted into slavery. Inspired by Conan Doyle’s fiction, Jim strives to emulate Sherlock Holmes’s techniques of logical deduction, close observation, and the use of disguise.
Jim’s achievements mark him as a hero in the epic mode, but this is balanced by the realistic portrayal of the context in which he functions: strict social divisions based on race, class, and caste; patriarchal attitudes and rigid adherence to convention; conflict caused by external raids, nationalist movements, and political manoeuvring; exploitation of the vulnerable; and widespread pain and suffering, which he shares. Though the plot meanders somewhat, this is an insightful account of life in India on the cusp of the 20th century. Highly recommended.
