Midnight at Malabar House: Winner of the CWA Historical Dagger and Shortlisted for the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year (The Malabar House Series)

Very enjoyable. Historically informative.

This story is set in India in the late 1940s/early 50s at a time where everything is in flux. The British ruling classes have mostly left and we see a New India emerging, but one that is still coming to terms with the Politics, and religious tensions of Partition.Add to this heady mix a feisty female police officer trying to make an impression in an all male institution. And, now throw in, at the stroke of midnight, on New Year’s Eve, a murder taking place in a full house of revellers.The author paints a vivid picture of this new world. A world where privilege and entitlement rubs shoulders with beggars and land workers trying to scrape a living at a time of drought. All the sights, sounds and smells are brought to life for the reader as the murder investigation gets underway.What Khan conjures up for us is almost a Christie-esque scene - the big house party, full of potential suspects; the gruesome murder; the victim - minus his trousers and the final scene where the police officer lures her suspects to gather for the final showdown where the killer is finally revealed.It is a beautifully crafted book, with an almost comfortable, ‘Sunday evening TV’ feel about it. Interesting story, characters and dialogue. I enjoyed reading it.

This is the first in the Malabar House series & features Inspector Persis Wadia. She is the first woman inspector in the new Indian police force. She has had to fight for her rightful place in a male dominated environment & a society which is not ready to accept a woman in authority.The story is set against the turbulent period of post partition India; the country is still coming to terms with the aftermath of 300 years of British rule. The partition causes friends to become enemies, fracturing society in unexpected ways which adds to the problems faced by Persis as she investigates the death of Sir James Herriot.Persis pursues the truth stubbornly & with persistence. She is hindered by her colleagues, who feel women have no place in the police service, as well as the lingering fears & prejudices of a traumatised nation.An easy writing style which made this a compelling read, drawing on a historical time in the fledgling independent India.I would thoroughly recommend & I can’t wait to read book two.

Page turning detective mystery novel full of red herrings and well drawn characters. Interesting information on the trials and tribulations of Indian partition scattered throughout- just enough not to slow pace of story but adding to the interest. Atmospheric depiction of India.

I am concerned about coincidences between this book and Sujata Massey's Perveen Mistry series of novels which were published a couple of years before Vaseem Khan's.Perveen is 'India's first woman lawyer'. Persis Wadia is 'India's first woman detective'.Perveen and Persis are both based in Bombay.Both are Parsee women - a convenient way to explain away their willingness to be so unconventional it would seem; a part of local society but also apart from local society.Both fight the sexism and prejudices of their colleagues.Both are tenacious in their determination to find justice.Both have unfortunate past love affairs.The only key difference is that Perveen's stories predate Persis Wadia's by around 30 years.I know that trends in writing are not unusual but the coincidences between these two series are more striking than most.But................let's put that aside and get on with the book.Pluses:1. The setting, just after the end of Empire, is an interesting one, as is our dead victim.There's still a great deal of festering resentment to unpack and examine. Most of the Brits have gone home but our dead man has been investigating crimes associated with Partition. Might he be a 'good egg' who really cares about India, or will Persis find he's rather more out for himself? He's murdered at his own New Year's Eve party, left without his trousers, with a slit throat and the burning embers of some hastily incinerated papers in his fireplace.2. The exploration of not only Partition in 1947 but also unrest in the Punjab arising from the infamous Jallianwallahbagh Massacre back in 1919 is to be commended. There aren't enough books looking at those important events and the massacre and its impact on one of the characters is handled in a very interesting way. The sins of the father are still very much visited on the son. Khan also manages to squeeze in murderous behaviour in Burma during WW2. I applaud the history lessons that he offers.3. After a very slow start, the book picks up pace in the second half and the plot thickens considerably. I was very close to spotting the killer but not quite there - right reasons, wrong person. I always appreciate a story that logically leads us to a rational conclusionCons:1. Persis is not a convincing female protagonist. There's very little about her that suggests the author really has any idea how to write a female character. Aside from the odd bit of flirtation with her British side-kick, you could pretty much go through the book, switch the pronouns and replace her with a man. I didn't buy her as an authentic character at all.2. The first half is a drag. It's a slow plod around Bombay as we're introduced to a wide cast of characters, none of whom really get going until over halfway through.3. The tactic of "let's give the case to the least experienced detective who's sure to screw it up but then again, maybe not" is straight out of the book of classic procedural devices for Indian crime novels. It popped up a few days ago in the last book I read (The Waiter by Ajay Chowdhury) and it was so obvious as to be almost insulting.In short, it's a mixed batch of a book. I will read the next two - possibly in the wrong order - and see if they develop further. I'd prefer my 'first woman detective' to be a bit more three dimensional. Let's see if she improves with familiarity.

I have read and enjoyed other books by Vaseem Khan; fun and whimsical books set in India. However this book, set in Bombay shortly after partition, is both a great crime fiction read, and taught me a lot about the end of the British colonial period and teething troubles in the new India. It also defies expectations of policing investigation set in early 1950 as casting the main character as India’s first female police detective. Really well written and enjoyable!

An interesting police story in Post Partition India

Believable characters, with a story that was easy to follow but also with a backdrop of real interesting historical context. What more could you want.

My first read by this author and I found it very well written and informative as to the changeover from British rule in the late 40's. A well researched book with an interesting plot line. I will definitely read more in this series!

Love his books. The baby Ganesha series is very good too

A great read! Vaseem Khan takes us back to a world which we only read of in cold history books - and creates a whole new context to set the crime in. Great characters, well etched out and a detective who stands apart. A new genre is emerging- South Asian vintage crime - set in the context of a colonial/ post colonial era, where the interplay between the jewel in the crown of the Empire and the crimes of the people inhabiting it , is the focal point. A must for lovers of crime and colonial history!

Très fan de l’auteur et de la série. Des enquêtes sympa dans un environnement dépaysant.

I've been a Vaseem Khan fan for years; I've enjoyed every Baby Ganesh book that he has written.The Baby Ganesh books, featuring the Mumbai Police's retired Inspector Chopra, are light fiction -- pleasant, not profound, but very enjoyable.I assumed that Midnight at Malabar House would be similar, but it's actually quite different in style, tone, content, and depth of character.Midnight at Malabar House is set in India, shortly after independence and partition. The main character, prickly Persis Wadia, is India's first female police inspector.An exceptionally bright, physically able woman, she deals with all of the male and societal prejudices one would expect, particularly the expectation that she will fail.But, of course, Persis does not fail.Her effort to solve the murder of a British diplomat takes us through many of the different religious communities, sects, and levels of society that persist into modern India.For me, it is the time period that makes this book so memorable. Khan excels in making 1950 India, just barely past the atrocities involved in partition, come alive.Saying that I am looking forward to the planned 2nd and 3rd books in the Malabar House series is axiomatic.