Stellar Signs byManjiri Prabhu (Jaico Books).
I must admit I picked up the book with some amount of trepidation; me, I`m no fan of whodunits and I don`t repose too much confidence in astrology, either. And this is a book about Sonia Samarth, our desi Nancy Drew, who mixes sound common sense and sharp detection skills with a large dose of yep, astrology. Voila, cases solved.
But, famous last words et al. Before I knew it, I was in the game, guessing and second-guessing Sonia`s moves every step of the way. The comely lass runs her own outfit, the Stellar Investigations Detective Agency in Pune, has a young (male) sidekick who comes off as a neat foil to his boss , loves her adopted cat Nidhi; the neighbourhood cops are all friendly and supportive, her male admirer (Ned to Nancy?) is a journalist who hangs out with her pretty much most of the time, and the cherry on the icing is the Owl, her secret admirer who may or may not be a crook, a tantalizing presence in Sonia`s life.
Apparently, this is the second book in the author`s astro-detective series. Here, Sonia solves a number of mysteries and while the twists and turns are neither complex nor convoluted, they hold enough details to, in turn, hold the reader`s interest. A young woman`s death which could either be a murder or a suicide; the strange case of two actors dying onstage; some adept astrochart reading on a train journey that helps stop a murder before it can be committed; the disappearance of some statues, a wife and child from the house of a wealthy businessman; a beautiful jewel thief who manages to grab the loot and run; the apparently straightforward death of a famous classical singer which his wife finds mysterious, even sinister; the find of a trove of love letters that tells of an abortive affair…Sonia strides in gracefully and manages to solve them all.
Prabhu`s style is simple, direct, and it works; she has a yarn to spin and does so without any fanfare. The reader gets to travel places with the pretty gumshoe, witness Ganapati puja with her, eat a Karjat special batata wada, visit the Pataleshwar Caves, and generally have fun.
Very uneven editing, though. The manner in which the most common of nouns had the first letter in caps --- the Journalist, her Mother, the Tamarind, Mango and Banyan trees , an Auto and an Autowala ---quite shook me. Sonia Samarth deserves better.