I was reading an online interview of a writer in an article posted on twitter and she happened to mention Madhulika Liddle as one of the influences on her own writing. She had heaped praises and I found that other tweeters also had mentioned how much they had enjoyed Liddle’s books. The name stuck in my head. Later, when I was browsing through my online library book lists, I found a book from Madhulika Liddle and I decided to borrow it. I am glad I did so.
The Englishman’s Cameo is a debut novel from Madhulika Liddle. In this detective story set in the 17th century Mughal era, we find the young nobleman Muzaffar Jung trying to help his friend who has been accused of murdering a rich businessman. Jung stumbles from one mystery to the other and in the end, all ends well.
I loved the story. The writing is very lyrical and engaging; the writer effortlessly creates the milieu with careful and detailed descriptions of the rich, decadent Mughal era. I liked the way she evokes the images of a bygone era with the details of the food, clothes, jewellery. I could have read on and on. The characters were well developed; intriguing people with a hint of enough baggage of the past such as, Jung’s intelligent sister who is almost old enough to be his mother, Jung’s boatman friend, and a mention of the long-lost love; I wanted to know more and more about them. Since this is the first book, I am guessing she developed them further – Muzaffar Jung continues his adventures in the next few novels and short stories.
Despite all these positives, the very mystery solving process falls pretty short of expectations. There is nothing gripping in terms of the suspense or the mystery per se. If one was expecting something on the lines of Agatha Christie stories, one would be greatly disappointed. Yet I am willing to try the next few books from this author. Now that is a first for me.
Though I would love to recommend this book highly, I rate this 3.5/5.0 purely because it does not do enough justice to its genre.
No comments:
Post a Comment