{"id":6410,"date":"2025-05-12T06:50:42","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T13:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=6410"},"modified":"2025-05-12T06:50:42","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T13:50:42","slug":"nev-march-the-silversmiths-puzzle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/nev-march-the-silversmiths-puzzle\/","title":{"rendered":"Nev March: The Silversmith’s Puzzle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Captain Jim & Lady Diana #4<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I loved, loved, loved the first book in this series, Murder in Old Bombay.<\/em>\u00a0 In that first book, the main characters, Captain Jim Agnihotri and Lady Diana Framji, meet and marry despite some pretty steep obstacles.\u00a0 Jim is half white, half Indian, and he is not a Parsi, as Lady Diana is.\u00a0 The Parsis, the aristocrats of Indian culture in the 1890\u2019s, have very strict rules about marrying outside the faith. This creates problems for the couple.<\/p>\n

Jim, a dashing and decorated Captain in the British army, has worked as a journalist and a private investigator for the Framji family.\u00a0 He met the Framjis when he searched for the killer of Diana\u2019s sister-in-law.\u00a0 In this novel, it\u2019s her widower, Diana\u2019s brother Adi, who is in trouble.\u00a0 The two novels in between this one and the first found Diana and Jim in Boston and Chicago and on a steamship crossing the ocean.\u00a0 Those novels, which were fine traditional mysteries, nevertheless lacked the zip and life of the first novel.\u00a0 As the Agnihotris return to India, however, life returns to this wonderful series.<\/p>\n

Adi is in serious trouble.\u00a0 His business partner has been murdered and he\u2019s the most likely suspect.\u00a0 The two of them had been manufacturing surgical instruments but were having a tough go selling them as they are made in India.\u00a0 Doctors seem to want instruments made in the UK. \u00a0Not only is the business partner dead but the business is struggling, and it turns out that the man had borrowed all kinds of money as well as cleaning out Adi\u2019s bank account before he died.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the Framjis, while delighted to have Diana and Jim home again, are finding themselves shunned, both because of Adi\u2019s situation and because of Diana and Jim\u2019s marriage.\u00a0 Jim, who feels responsible for the family\u2019s plight and worries about his wife\u2019s pain, wants nothing more than to save Adi and discover the true killer.\u00a0 This is made far more difficult and time imperative when Adi is actually arrested and taken to jail.<\/p>\n

Jim operates on his knowledge of Adi\u2019s character and calls on the various connections he\u2019s made in Bombay \u2013 through the army, the police, and from his brief stint as a journalist.\u00a0 March, a devotee of Holmes (as is Jim), has created a series that relies, as Doyle\u2019s creation did, on deduction, and also includes Sherlock\u2019s love of disguise and adventure.\u00a0 Jim is having little success until he mobilizes the entire Framji family in his endeavour, finding a team works better than he could alone.<\/p>\n

The disguises, tricky connections, and well laid out mystery are a delight, but what brings the book to life are not only the personalities of Jim and Diana (and her family) but the city of Bombay, which serves as a character as well. \u00a0One way of armchair travel is of course geographical, but another way, in the hands of a gifted writer, is virtual time travel.\u00a0 When reading this novel you can feel you are back in old Bombay, a city on the cusp of independence from the British, a city with arcane connections between classes that make everything function.<\/p>\n

The mystery here is excellent and if March takes a minute to unfold her tale, be assured it\u2019s well worth it.\u00a0 She\u2019s a master storyteller.\u00a0 I am hoping she keeps her couple in Bombay, as they still have a few issues to resolve, issues which add resonance and depth to this wonderful series.\u00a0 If you\u2019re up for a bit of time travel coupled with a great story, pick this one up. —\u00a0Robin Agnew<\/em><\/p>\n

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

Captain Jim & Lady Diana #4 I loved, loved, loved the first book in this series, Murder in Old Bombay.\u00a0 In that first book, the main characters, Captain Jim Agnihotri and Lady Diana Framji, meet and marry despite some pretty steep obstacles.\u00a0 Jim is half white, half Indian, and he is not a Parsi, as … 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":[1324,10,451,100,448,1276,2103,1436],"class_list":["post-6410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-captain-jim-and-lady-diana","tag-historical","tag-india-1890s","tag-minotaur-books","tag-nev-march","tag-robin-agnew","tag-the-silversmiths-puzzle","tag-traditional-detection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6410","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=6410"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6412,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6410\/revisions\/6412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}