{"id":4885,"date":"2023-03-25T07:37:06","date_gmt":"2023-03-25T14:37:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=4885"},"modified":"2023-05-09T17:17:33","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T00:17:33","slug":"harini-negendra-murder-under-a-red-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/harini-negendra-murder-under-a-red-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"Harini Nagendra: Murder Under a Red Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The second novel in Harini Nagendra\u2019s charming series featuring new bride and fledgling detective, Kaveri Murthy, finds Kaveri struggling to get along with her mother in law, Bhargavi.\u00a0 When Bhargavi asks Kaveri as a favor to look into an embezzlement at her cousin\u2019s husband\u2019s factory, she reluctantly agrees, even though she feels unqualified to take on this job.\u00a0 When she goes to meet her mother in law\u2019s cousin at the factory, the two women enter the factory, and find the man dead.\u00a0 Somehow Nagendra manages to make this almost expected death shocking and terrible, and Kaveri is caught up in taking the grieving woman back home and getting her settled. Now that the embezzlement has turned to murder, Kaveri knows she wants to investigate.<\/p>\n

These books are skillful traditional mysteries, with the added interest of being set in 1920\u2019s Bangalore.\u00a0 Kaveri, married at 14, has just recently come to live with her husband, Ramu, and happily, the two have discovered they actually love each other.\u00a0 In the first novel, The Bangalore Detectives Club, <\/em>Nagendra set up the story as a backdrop to this lovely discovery.\u00a0 In this second novel, we see Kaveri setting up her own social network, one begun in the last novel.<\/p>\n

This is complicated by the murder case, and someone seems to have it in for Kaveri.\u00a0 She\u2019s gained a name for herself as a detective \u2013 including a brass plate on her backyard shed \u2013 and her notoriety has gained her some unwelcome attentions.\u00a0 Kaveri\u2019s social network consists of a raggedy group of women, including a former prostitute, whom she is teaching to read and write.\u00a0 Her mother in law is not so sure about this mixing of classes, but Kaveri is blissfully unbothered by these social niceties.<\/p>\n

None of what Nagendra writes about is truly ground breaking, but she absolutely excels as an entertaining and thoughtful storyteller, utilizing appealing characters to tell her stories.\u00a0 This novel is more straightforward than the first book, and places Kaveri in danger a few times, which serves to highlight the true affection and regard Ramu holds for his wife.<\/p>\n

The dead man\u2019s wife, Shanthi, has arranged for her step daughter, Chitra, to marry the manager of the factory.\u00a0 Chitra is not happy about this, and Kaveri gets conflicting accounts of their relationship to the dead man from each woman.\u00a0 She\u2019s not sure who to believe, and she places a woman she knows as a maid inside the house to see if she can find more answers.\u00a0 Everything is complicated, of course, by Bhargavi\u2019s affection for her cousin.<\/p>\n

The social matrix\u00a0 and the details of daily life make the book an indelible read.\u00a0 For example, there’s the fact that it was unusual for Kaveri to drive a car at the time.\u00a0 There’s the starving boys selling dead rats at the police station for a few pennies for food.\u00a0 There’s the idea that a factory owner could choose to pay poor wages, or<\/em> pay wages allowing workers to send their children to school.\u00a0 There’s the dog show that kicks off the novel, with the ugliest dog of all ending up in Kaveri’s back yard. And overall there are the lives of the women in the story, whose fate is often governed by the men they marry or encounter, for good or ill.<\/p>\n

Whatever the magical formula is for a series that\u2019s readable, loveable, and that truly sparkles on the page, Nagendra seems to possess it.\u00a0 She\u2019s the real deal. The first two books are totally delightful and hold the promise of more delights to come. — Robin Agnew<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The second novel in Harini Nagendra\u2019s charming series featuring new bride and fledgling detective, Kaveri Murthy, finds Kaveri struggling to get along with her mother in law, Bhargavi.\u00a0 When Bhargavi asks Kaveri as a favor to look into an embezzlement at her cousin\u2019s husband\u2019s factory, she reluctantly agrees, even though she feels unqualified to take … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1116,1109,1115,1112,10,1111,1114,1110,154,1113],"class_list":["post-4885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-1920s-bangalore","tag-bangalore-detectives-club","tag-dog-shows","tag-embezzlement","tag-historical","tag-kaveri-murthy","tag-mother-in-law","tag-murder-under-a-red-moon","tag-pegasus-crime","tag-tangled-family-relationships"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4885"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4991,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4885\/revisions\/4991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}