A great crime thriller.
I seem to be picking some cracking books at the moment and this one did not disappoint at all. Another fabulous novel that keeps you guessing until the last few pages.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an advance copy of The Lost Man of Bombay, the third novel to feature Inspector Persis Wadia of Bombay Police, set in 1950.

The body of a white man is found in a cave in the foothills of the Himalayas. The slimmest of references sends the investigation to Bombay and Malabar House, where it lands on Persis’s desk. The Ice Man as he becomes known is a press sensation, but with no clues and two recent murders to investigate she doesn’t have the time to devote to him, until it becomes obvious that there is a conspiracy involved.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Lost Man of Bombay for so many reasons. The plot is clever with a multitude of twists and is expertly woven around the politics of the time. It even has time to throw in cultural and religious references that give this reader a greater understanding of Indian life. It’s all very colourful and compelling.

I loved the plot because it is so imaginative, not in an unrealistic way, but in the way it develops from the discovery of a body into something quite different and how it gets there. I’m not going to expand on that as it would involve spoilers, except to say it’s impressive. I also like the way it naturally incorporates the themes at the time, like, among others, the growing pains of the new, democratic India and the memories of British exploitation of India over the past few centuries. It all binds into a wonderful whole.

I must admit that I found Persis rather tiresome in this novel. She’s smart in her investigation, but emotionally she’s childish and all over the place. It’s hard to be a trailblazer as the first female Inspector in the Indian Police Service, and the sacrifices she has to make are difficult - mostly her budding relationship with English forensic scientist Archie Blackfinch because married women are not accepted in the IPS and then there’s the interracial thing. That’s me done the empathetic bit, because her reactions to other situations are understandable but annoying in fiction. She could do with losing the judgemental aspect of her personality.

The Lost Man of Bombay is a good read that I have no hesitation in recommending.

Perfection..
It is a delight to join Inspector Persis Wadia once again in the third of the superlative Malabar House series. The frozen body of a man has been discovered near Dehra Dun, swiftly christened ‘The Ice Man’ by local media. What is the story behind this discovery? Persis and Archie investigate the case and soon find links to a dark past and present. Unfortunately, more murders in the city add to their load. A mystery in traditional vein with a deft and confidently crafted cast of characters, a firm and well depicted sense of time and place and an intriguing storyline with an often dark edge. Perfection to read and another winning entry in the series.

5*. I loved it! The Lost Man of Bombay (which I have also seen titled in advanced copies as The Lost Man of Debra Dun) is the 3rd in Vaseem Khan’s brilliant Malabar House series. We rejoin Persis, India’s first female police woman who took up her role as the clock struck on Indian independence and partition. This series is a pre-order must for me.

In a cave in the mountains, the body of an unidentified European man is found, quickly dubbed the Ice Man by the press. Meanwhile in Bombay a couple are murdered while sleeping in their bed, the woman being the daughter of a prominent politician. As the body count mounts, the seemingly unrelated cases land on the desk of Persis. Dogged by her sexist colleagues but determined to find the answers, Persis had to unlock a host of cyphers and a decade long mystery to draw the strings together.

The Lost Man of Bombay would work well as a stand alone. However, revisiting Persis, her family and her colleagues (notably Archie the awkward British forensic policeman) is an absolute joy. This is the second book in the series to include cyphers and to draw on inspiration from real events which leads to a brilliantly plotted story. The pacing, the protagonists and the sense of place are all superb. I would highly recommend this book and those which go before it.

With huge thanks to Hodder and Stoughton and Netgalley for an advance copy.

This is the third book in the series and I loved it just as much as the previous two. Persis, the central character is a female police inspector at a time in history when this was remarkable. The book intertwines the fractious relationships within the police station, Persis' rather complicated personal and family dynamics and the underlying mystery of several murders that appear to be random. I hope the series will continue....

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

This is the third book in the Malabar House series by Vaseem Khan.

The series is set in Bombay immediately after partition and independence in 1950 and the protagonist is India’s first fictional police Inspector, Persia Wadia.

This story follows Persia as she investigates three seemingly unrelated murders and Khan fills the story with rich descriptions of India and its inhabitants. As with the first two books, Midnight At Malibar House and The Dying Day, The Lost Man of Bombay is a well written and well plotted mystery that kept me enthralled from beginning to end.

I first picked up this series as the location and time period interested me and I wanted to learn more. Khan gives an overview of the period and offers insights into the strengths and weaknesses of all sides.

All in all I can’t praise this book enough. It’s well written and the story kept me in its grip until the very end! Highly recommended!

***Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher***

The Lost Man of Bombay is the third of the Malabar House series, which is directly comparable with Sujata Massey’s Perveen Mistry series, set in Bombay just a little earlier in the twentieth century. Both writers are excellent.

Vaseem Khan has created in Persis Wadia the best kind of heroine for Malabar House - one whose imperfections define her. She battles against history and other people (both Indian and English) in these novels but also against herself.

The Lost Man of Bombay is set in 1950 and Persis is drawn back in time to solve the murder of the man dubbed the Ice Man by the media. It is a traditional mystery but very cleverly constructed. One of Vaseem Khan’s great strengths is his ability to bring different threads together to make a fascinating puzzle.

As with all the novels, it offers real insight into the historical period, offering a wonderful blend of education and entertainment. The familiar characters from the first two novels are there and the wider story of Persis is developed as she grows in her role in the face of continuing odds against her.

There is sometimes a tendency to imply that books as beautifully plotted as this must lack a literary dimension. Nothing could be further from the truth here. This is literature at its best and one of the most memorable stories you will find.

I would highly recommend this to any fan of mysteries, police procedurals, historical settings, etc; in fact, to anyone. I haven't read the other books in the series, but that doesn't impact on my reading of this - it can be a standalone. Set in post-independence Bombay, with a mystery harking back to World War 2, and 'Seven Years in Tibet'! it is definitely a worthwhile read.

With thanks to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for an ARC.

First read by this author and it won’t be the last! Loved the style of writing and liked how the story has been portrayed. The characters grow on you too.

This is the first book I've read from Vaseem Khan, and it was fantastic! Charming, intriguing, and escapist, I greatly appreciated this ARC. Thanks so much!

I enjoyed this murder mystery set in India just after Independence and Partition. I like the author's take on the father-daughter relationship (in my experience, spot on), and the general attitude towards women, which unfortunately still persists almost everywhere even now, seventy years later. The plot moves along at a decent pace with some good twists and turns, and my own guess at the mystery's solution was totally wrong! However, I found some of the explanations of India's history and heritage a bit annoying, patronising and too long, as though the author assumed his readers to be in dire need of education.

This is the third book in the Malabar House series. I had not read either of the previous books, and don't think that in any way affected my enjoyment of this one. However, I am now planning to read the first two Malabar House books.

3.5 stars
While i did enjoy the central mystery, i didn't really like the book on the whole. I felt that the plot was overly complicated and there were too many, too long descriptions. Perhaps this was because a lot of descriptions and explanations felt redundant to me as an Indian. I got the feeling that this book will be enjoyed more by readers unfamiliar with India.

But what irritated me the most and made me flip through my kindle incessantly, was the Persis-Archie angle. It is beginning to feel overly long drawn out, with no progress happening. It is just there to check the boxes of Perses' private life. And i am also beginning to get a little tired of the slightly whiny creature that Khan seems to be turning her into. Not a very good sign for a series lead!

I enjoyed this read. Well written with an Christie esque storyline and well developed charcaters. I thought the story was compelling with a good amount of mystery and I had to keep reading to find out what happened. It was a cosy and quick read for me.

A couple of civil servants in the foothills of the Himalayas, taking a break from the bureaucracy of Nehru’s early post independence government, find an unidentified white man in a cave exposed by a small avalanche. A book found on him leads to the long dead body being sent to Malabar House, Bombay, where Inspector Persis, the first and only woman police inspector in the Indian police service is detailed to unravel the case, which the pathologist suspects to be one of murder. Soon afterwards an Italian industrialist and his wife are murdered and the next day a foreign priest meets the same grisly fate. What is going on?

With some reservations, I did enjoy this book. It’s a romp of a read with the ingredients of a good, old fashioned detective story arriving at pace including a twist at the end. The plotting is good and nothing essential is concealed from the reader. The main character is not too easy to like (nor are the others) but she’s tenacious and unafraid and her perspective on British rule, recently ended, and Indian rule, recently started, makes a welcome change from the views usually expressed in golden age detective fiction.

I’m not too sure how authentic some of the behaviours of the characters are, although the hostility to a woman in uniform feels plausible. The writing is a bit wooden in places and sometimes just odd. Partly this is due to the occasionally bewildering typographic howlers, such as ‘ineligible’ in place of ‘illegible’ and the enigmatic ‘slighting seeding’. Some further proof reading, please.

I don’t think streets remind anyone of the ‘smug shrillness of a second wife’ and it seems unduly pompous to me that a squalid, apparently serial murderer would find ‘Like Alexander, in the wake of every conquest came only emptiness’.

For a story with a different perspective, though, the book has legs and it’s worth a read.