In addition, I liked how Fernandez is not your stereotypical irredeemably unpleasant patriarch.
How many detectives, in fiction, have arrived to protect someone, only for their charge to die swiftly afterwards? The disparity between the reader’s anticipated victim and the actual primary victim in the book is one of the cleverer aspects of the story, as it becomes more difficult to decide on a motive, as previously the novel has focused more on revealing the potential motives for bumping off Fernandez. This is an interesting element of the mystery’s setup, and it does lead you into predicting the narrative will go a certain way, especially when Harith Athreya is invited to the household to watch after Fernandez. Raman’s patriarch is Bhaskar Fernandez and initially he has tried to deter would be murderers by preparing two wills, with the manner of his death affecting which document will be enacted. Secondly, there is the archetypal wealthy patriarch who fears his relatives may be trying to murder him and in Heyer’s mystery fiction wealthy patriarchs are definitely an unhealthy role to be in.
To a British reader this seems more unusual. In a British classic crime novel, snow would be the most likely culprit, but I enjoyed how the writer uses a landslide instead. With these tropes Raman creates some cultural variation, which I think is one of the strengths of the mystery.įirstly, we have the sumptuous country house which gets cut off by bad weather. Of all the classic crime writers Raman could be compared to, Heyer seems, to me, to be the more apt suggestion. Whilst I would not go as far as Rhys Bowen who says this novel is ‘like stepping back into the Golden Age of the classic mystery,’ I would suggest that Raman certainly adopts a traditional mystery structure in the Georgette Heyer mould, including some well-established tropes. When a landslide leaves the estate temporarily isolated, and a body is discovered, Athreya finds that death is not the only thing that the mist conceals.’ Which one of them comes into force will depend on how he dies.įernandez also invites Harith Athreya, a seasoned investigator, to watch what unfolds. He knows his guests expect to gain from his death, so he writes two conflicting wills. Keep reading to see whether I think it does…Īgeing millionaire Bhaskar Fernandez has invited his relatives to the remote, and possibly haunted, Greybrooke Manor, high up in the misty Nilgiris.
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