Author: Madhulika Liddle
Reviewer: Ritika Palit
Mystery books often lack the layered prose which usually
makes readers pick up their favourite books and re-read them. Yet, readers keep
on going back to Sherlock Holmes, keep on picking up those Poirot novels and
will still be moved by Father Brown’s impassioned speech to Flambeau. What
makes readers return to mystery novels? To look for clues they might have
missed in the first reading? To recapture that feeling of amazement and awe
when they read the grand denouement by the detective?
Good detective novels, the ones which endure, are firmly
ensconced in their humanity and in their atmosphere. Think of The Hound of
Baskerville and the loneliness and gauntness of the moors immediately haunt
you. Madhulika Liddle’s “The Eighth Guest & Other Muzaffar Jang Mysteries”
is defined by its atmosphere. Set in 1656, the stories are written in the era
of Shahjahan’s ruling. Liddle subtly mentions the class divisions, the gender
divide, the debauchery of the aristocracy, the desperation of poverty. She does
so without judgment. She is an author content with just building up the world
where her detective lives, and we see the same world with her unbiased eyes.
And what a world it is indeed.
Muzaffar Jang, described as a ‘Maverick Mughal Nobleman’, is
an oddity in his era. He suffers from intense curiosity, is regardless of
social positions, and has friends from all strata of society. This combination
often results in his being entangled in mysterious situations. He travels all
over Dilli, from the house of noblemen, exquisite gardens, the now-destroyed
Begum ki Sarai to small villages with detailed explanations of their water
supply, the Royal elephant stables and the imperial atelier. We go with him and
get immersed in the flavour of Old Dilli. However, Jang himself remains a
stranger to us. We never really empathize with the detective’s need to detect
or with his flouting of social conventions. Perhaps little biographical details
would help readers warm up to the nobleman more.
The mysteries themselves are quite lightly written, some of
them rather blandly obvious, while some do have an interesting background story
and can grip a reader. ‘A Pachydermal Puzzle’, which takes place in the Royal
Elephant Stables, deserves a special mention. But the plot of the stories seems
to take a backseat to the more beautifully detailed description of the world in
which the mysteries are set.
Madhulika Liddle has done a marvelous job of researching old
Dilli and has presented it to us beautifully. But the setting gives her yet more
to explore. This is an unknown world to most readers, and details on political,
social and cultural conventions from that era would make further tales more
welcome. The mysteries are simple and the author can afford to be more
adventurous with her content. However, this book can happily be recommended for
a little light reading, if only for the world in which the author takes us.
(Ritika Palit is doing her Ph.D. in Development Economics and reads books to get over that)
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