Member Review
Review by
Arunaa A, Reviewer
Vaseem Khan is a pure class writer. Wordsmith and a master at wordplay. The ‘Midnight At Malabar House’ is his best yet. This one swept me off my feet completely because this becomes an entity of its own without any form of shadowing from the Inspector Chopra and Baby Ganesh Agency series. Midnight at Malabar House takes a different atmosphere and the build-up of story took a different turn. The story is centred around a female police inspector, Persis Wardia trying to find her voice in a male-centric police force.
How Khan wrote a whole new murder mystery that distinguishes itself from his previous works is pure magic. Apart from Agatha Christie, I haven’t come across many crime-writers who could accomplish this contrast in their work.
Partition is quite a tricky subject to handle without forming a biased judgement. Khan carries out the entire juxtaposition eloquently to his readers. Argues out the complexities, multitudes and mirror them to his readers is a testament to his well-thought-out work. He wrote as a matter-of-fact of the political hegemonies which were radicalized by religions and greed for power.
I felt he achieved a middle-(battle)-ground in a flashback in Imphal,Manipur where Indian soldiers (INA) backed up by the Japanese army were fighting the Allied forces of British and the Indian soldiers engaged by the English regiment. Indians and Japanese together on one hand and on the other hand were the Indians with the colonial masters. Double whammy crisis that involved gruesome bloodshed and inhumane cruelties carefully handled by Khan in this story.
His finishing touches are so smooth. No loose ends. All tied up to give his readers a perfectly composed transition in his plot that takes you from Bombay to Punjab with hints of Scotsmen, archaic Indian traditions, Nawabs, the Radcliffe line, and a scenic train journey. A little history of the train systems built in India also took its place in the story. This is no cliched colonial hangover plot which we often come across. But a vividly described prose that enables readers to visualize the entire story before your eyes.
Midnight Malabar House has forensic science features, the usage of Locard’s Principle by the sidekick detective and pathologist - one to stimulate the minds of crime-story lovers. Shows the contrasting entitlements reserved for the Bombay elites and the sycophants of Britishers from the soldiers born on Indian soil fighting a war against their own which wasn’t theirs to begin with.
A glimpse of Churchill orchestrating the power play between Jinnah and Nehru, with 2 other characters Mountbatten and Gandhi equally significant in their roles to the entire catastrophe in the subcontinent.
Khan handled the rich versus poor issues, the egocentric minds of the Indian males whom Persis Wardia had to fight against, the once two brothers (Muslims and Hindus) at loggerheads, career nepotism, misogynist predators always after the women, the always vulgar racial disparities the Britishers had imposed on the Indians and the old feudal system displaced by the supposedly progressive democratic government.
I loved the historical features in his story on the British architecture combined with the Portugese roots which evolved into a cosmopolitan Bombay. The religious and geographical trivia of Punjab, Amritsar. Exotic indian jewelleries, glitz, glam and all that jazz. Human sensibilities, truth, justice and ambition, twisted conscience. George Orwell’s ‘Thought Police’, Bhagat Singh’s revolutionary law vision, Isaiah’s philosophy on the righteous, and even ‘Doctor Zhivago’ play their cameo in Khan’s story.
The climax is provocative and flavourful left to the devices of Persis who had no choice but to throw the cat among the pigeons to identify the murderer. One of my favourite lines by Persis is, “Have you ever tried to stop the monsoon?”. Dang! She’s one femme formidable.
This is a surreal movie experience in a book. I deliberately read it slowly as I did not want it to end so soon. Because the story was too good. He has written prolifically on the undercurrents of corruption, warped mentality, social class prejudices, political expediency, malleable justice that are often exploited by the rich and the powerful. Each step he takes to solving the crime is carefully layered. I’ve truly fallen in love with his writing. I read from cover to cover. His heartfelt note at the end is a reminder that we have to rise above hatred if you want to go into history.
This new series of his is a sure blockbuster. Vaseem Khan proves himself again and again, he is a true class apart. You are in for an entirely sensually riveting crime thriller. Irresistibly ambrosial and I could sum it up with his signature line in ‘Midnight At Malabar House’ - “By a pool of nectar, at the shrine of the sixty-eight”.
Thank you NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for this ARC copy.
#MidnightAtMalabarHouse #Netgalley #VaseemKhan
How Khan wrote a whole new murder mystery that distinguishes itself from his previous works is pure magic. Apart from Agatha Christie, I haven’t come across many crime-writers who could accomplish this contrast in their work.
Partition is quite a tricky subject to handle without forming a biased judgement. Khan carries out the entire juxtaposition eloquently to his readers. Argues out the complexities, multitudes and mirror them to his readers is a testament to his well-thought-out work. He wrote as a matter-of-fact of the political hegemonies which were radicalized by religions and greed for power.
I felt he achieved a middle-(battle)-ground in a flashback in Imphal,Manipur where Indian soldiers (INA) backed up by the Japanese army were fighting the Allied forces of British and the Indian soldiers engaged by the English regiment. Indians and Japanese together on one hand and on the other hand were the Indians with the colonial masters. Double whammy crisis that involved gruesome bloodshed and inhumane cruelties carefully handled by Khan in this story.
His finishing touches are so smooth. No loose ends. All tied up to give his readers a perfectly composed transition in his plot that takes you from Bombay to Punjab with hints of Scotsmen, archaic Indian traditions, Nawabs, the Radcliffe line, and a scenic train journey. A little history of the train systems built in India also took its place in the story. This is no cliched colonial hangover plot which we often come across. But a vividly described prose that enables readers to visualize the entire story before your eyes.
Midnight Malabar House has forensic science features, the usage of Locard’s Principle by the sidekick detective and pathologist - one to stimulate the minds of crime-story lovers. Shows the contrasting entitlements reserved for the Bombay elites and the sycophants of Britishers from the soldiers born on Indian soil fighting a war against their own which wasn’t theirs to begin with.
A glimpse of Churchill orchestrating the power play between Jinnah and Nehru, with 2 other characters Mountbatten and Gandhi equally significant in their roles to the entire catastrophe in the subcontinent.
Khan handled the rich versus poor issues, the egocentric minds of the Indian males whom Persis Wardia had to fight against, the once two brothers (Muslims and Hindus) at loggerheads, career nepotism, misogynist predators always after the women, the always vulgar racial disparities the Britishers had imposed on the Indians and the old feudal system displaced by the supposedly progressive democratic government.
I loved the historical features in his story on the British architecture combined with the Portugese roots which evolved into a cosmopolitan Bombay. The religious and geographical trivia of Punjab, Amritsar. Exotic indian jewelleries, glitz, glam and all that jazz. Human sensibilities, truth, justice and ambition, twisted conscience. George Orwell’s ‘Thought Police’, Bhagat Singh’s revolutionary law vision, Isaiah’s philosophy on the righteous, and even ‘Doctor Zhivago’ play their cameo in Khan’s story.
The climax is provocative and flavourful left to the devices of Persis who had no choice but to throw the cat among the pigeons to identify the murderer. One of my favourite lines by Persis is, “Have you ever tried to stop the monsoon?”. Dang! She’s one femme formidable.
This is a surreal movie experience in a book. I deliberately read it slowly as I did not want it to end so soon. Because the story was too good. He has written prolifically on the undercurrents of corruption, warped mentality, social class prejudices, political expediency, malleable justice that are often exploited by the rich and the powerful. Each step he takes to solving the crime is carefully layered. I’ve truly fallen in love with his writing. I read from cover to cover. His heartfelt note at the end is a reminder that we have to rise above hatred if you want to go into history.
This new series of his is a sure blockbuster. Vaseem Khan proves himself again and again, he is a true class apart. You are in for an entirely sensually riveting crime thriller. Irresistibly ambrosial and I could sum it up with his signature line in ‘Midnight At Malabar House’ - “By a pool of nectar, at the shrine of the sixty-eight”.
Thank you NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for this ARC copy.
#MidnightAtMalabarHouse #Netgalley #VaseemKhan
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