A Matrimonial Murder by Meeti Shroff-Shah

 

First Line: On the quiet, gulmohar-lined slopes of Mumbai's posh Temple Hill, Sarla Seth is a powerful name.

 

Radhi, a writer and traveler, has returned home to Mumbai's posh Temple Hill district after spending years living in New York City. Radhi has many ghosts to deal with, among them the disappearance of her American lover and the death of her parents twenty years ago in which she's always held herself responsible. To top it all off, she's suffering from writer's block, so when her agent lines up a book project for her, Radhi decides to take it.

 

The subject of the book is Mumbai's thriving and ultra-competitive marriage bureau business, and Radhi will be spending a week with Sarla Seth, the best matchmaker of them all. 

 

Radhi has barely begun interviewing all the employees when Sarla's investigator is found dead in her office at the marriage bureau. The problem is, no one is sure if the dead woman was the intended victim... or was it Sarla Seth herself? Radhi may be contracted to write a book, but she finds herself investigating a murder instead.

 

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A Matrimonial Murder is the second book in the author's contemporary Temple Hill mystery series, and at times I felt that it would have been better had I read the first book (A Mumbai Murder Mystery) beforehand. However, I felt that way not because I was getting lost among the characters and the story, I felt it would have given me a slightly better understanding of the main character and her backstory.

 

Radhi has money. She's driven around Mumbai by her chauffeur, and she's found herself the subject of gossip in the rarefied air of the (fictional) Temple Hill district of Mumbai. After all, she's a thirty-year-old divorcee; she's had a white boyfriend, and... she's lived in the United States! Her sister Madhavi is a treasure even though Madhavi does have the mother-in-law from hell, a woman filled with feelings of entitlement and all the old prejudices that should have died lonely deaths years ago.

 

I enjoyed following Radhi around because of the in-depth look she gave me of present-day Mumbai and the detailed look at the matrimonial business of arranged marriages. I could see the clothing, wonder at the boxes of brightly-colored, patterned tissues, and feel my mouth water at the descriptions of all the food. For armchair traveling sleuths who love to learn about the cultures of other countries, A Matrimonial Murder is a treat.

 

The book also has a strong mystery that kept me guessing. Unfortunately, it also did something that really annoys me. What was it? Several times, Radhi found an important piece of the puzzle, and instead of sharing it with readers, she kept it to herself until the reveal at the end. Do writers do this because they think sharing the clues will help readers solve the mystery too soon, or are they wanting to play Agatha Christie and gather everyone in a room so the main character can Reveal All? For whatever reason, it annoys me because Christie could do it without being so obvious.

 

Strong mystery. Marvelous sense of place. An interesting main character. Something tells me that I'll be visiting Radhi in Mumbai again in the future. I just hope she starts sharing the clues she finds.

A Matrimonial Murder by Meeti Shroff-Shah

eISBN: 9781835263358

Joffe Books © 2024

eBook, 298 pages

 

Cozy Mystery, #2 Temple Hill mystery

Rating: B

Source: Net Galley