Mrs D'Silva's Detective Instincts and the Shaitan of Calcutta (PDF)

In a hugely enjoyable read, Glen Peters recaptures the tastes and atmospheres of 1960s India with a vivid and engaging novel of recipes and murder, intrigue and romance. Mrs D'Silva teaches at Don Bosco's Catholic school in Calcutta. She was brought up by the nuns of St Mary's when her mother died and now only thirty-two years of age is already a young widow with a son to care for. Life has a lot in store for Mrs D'Silva. Calcutta in 1960 is a city striving to change. The old rulers have gone home but India is still trying to find its own way towards a peaceful, prosperous future. But the world is changing and pressing in on the new country. Mrs D'Silva wants to be part of the New India, the new Kolkata. She likes the coffee houses of Chowringhee Road and the dances at the Grand Hotel. She likes her work at Don Bosco's, especially the new maths teacher from Darjeeling. She even likes her students. Which is why she is so shocked when the body of Agnes Lal, a young woman brought up by the nuns of the Loreto convent, is washed up on the marshes of the Hooghly river. Has Agnes been murdered? Does anyone care in a city where young girls go missing every day? And then Anil Sen, a former student of Mrs D'Silva's and a close friend of Agnes Lal, is charged with the murder of a factory manager during a riot. A riot started by The Workers Revolutionary Movement of Bengal, and what a group of goondas they are, led by that shaitan, Dutta. The same Dutta running rings around Inspector Basu, who has been forced into investigating both cases and is getting nowhere fast. The same Inspector Basu who has a son at Don Bosco s School. It s all a bit of a tamasha until Mrs D'Silva discovers her detective instincts. In a hugely enjoyable read, Glen Peters recaptures the tastes and atmospheres of 1960s India with a vivid and engaging novel of recipes and murder, intrigue and romance.