This is the first book of August for me. It took me twenty days to read.
When protagonist Kaveri came to the conclusion that all the murder victims were killed by the same person because they were stabbed in the chest, I thought that was very odd. I would have thought an investigator with Kaveri's experience would have been more insightful. Isn't stabbing people in the chest a fairly common means of killing people? I certainly see it a great deal in mysteries. If she'd examined the crime scenes and come to conclusions about attributes of the killer or killers, I'd have been impressed.
I learned that in this novel, the Education Board couldn't come to a conclusion about whether women should be allowed to study science. I studied science in college myself. I took several courses going beyond the science requirement. I hadn't expected to become fascinated with the more advanced science classes. So if I were living in India during that era, I would have voted for women studying science.
I read about the history of a character named Suman. His mother was an acrobat who had been a circus star. She even trained her dog to do somersaults. This made him the world's only somersaulting dog. His parents eloped because they were an inter-caste marriage which is still legally, socially and religiously problematic in 21st century India. I found a website with examples of inter-caste marriages at ten real stories.
We learn that some circus performers were justifying stealing from wealthy audience members on the grounds that they weren't being paid enough. This is a frequent justification for employee theft. I would think that forming a labor union would be more constructive response to poor pay and conditions. Some did do that during the 1920's which was the period in which this book largely took place.
Toward the end of the book, Kaveri eventually realized that she was pregnant and called it "the best gift of all".
The Historical Note that was appended after the end of novel's text contained some rather odd facts. For example, pencil sharpeners weren't in general use in India until the 1970's. Most Indians used a razor blade to keep their pencils sharp.
I gave this book a B+ for the well realized historical context.
