Customer Reviews

Mourning Raga

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Strictly speaking, this isn't an Inspector Felse mystery, but a Dominic Felse mystery. Ideally, read all the preceding Inspector Felse mysteries, in order, as they follow Dominic's childhood onward - but only to enjoy the character development properly. At a minimum, at least read _The Piper on the Mountain_, which recounts Dominic's first meeting with Tossa Barber and her mother, before _Mourning Raga_.

Tossa's movie-star mother Chloe has a genius for disrupting her daughter's plans, so Dominic fears the worst when Chloe calls the university just before Christmas vacation, with an offer that sounds too good to be true: accept an all-expense-paid trip to India, to escort 14-year-old Anjli Kumar, the daughter of Chloe's co-star Dorette Lester, to stay with her father while her mother is filming in England. (Anjli's mother is nominally the custodial parent, but even she's mostly an absentee.) Happily, Ms. Pargeter (a.k.a. Ellis Peters), doesn't make either leading lady behave according to stereotype; each is charming in private as well as in public, and they seem to get on well together; their influence to bring others into their orbit is as inevitable as a planet's gravity. :)

Dorette arranged for an old friend to look out for Anjli and her companions, since the friend is directing a film - a dramatized life of Buddha - on location. A potted mini-biography of Siddhartha's early life, before he became Buddha, is provided as the film is described; one noteworthy celebrity they meet is the composer working on the film. He's adapted a morning raga - something sung when guests depart in the morning - as a theme to be played for Siddhartha's bride and their young son; the adaptation is catchy.

Unfortunately, Dorette only wrote to her ex, rather than phoning him or waiting for a reply. Kumar has been out of touch for months, and his mother - Anjli's grandmother - is dying. The only relative left functioning is a cousin who acts as trustee for the estate - and Dominic and Tossa aren't too keen to leave Anjli, Kumar's heir, in his care.

But the matter is taken abruptly out of their hands when Anjli is kidnapped and held for ransom after her grandmother's death. Although published after _Black is the Colour of My True-Love's Heart_, the events of this book take place earlier: their first meeting with the Swami, mentioned in that book, occurs herein. As a friend of Kumar's, he takes a hand in working for Anjli's safe return. And Dominic is very uneasy, since the morning of her disappearance, he heard someone in the street outside the hotel singing a song from the soundtrack of a film that's still in production.

Ms. Peters does a wonderful job of describing modern-day India in this book. It's easy to tell that she often visited there and loved it. India is teaming with life and with colours. In this book we have Dominic and his girlfriend Tossa acting as chaperones to deliver a young girl to her Indian father. Once there they find themselves in a whole bunch of trouble. Their job of delivering their young charge becomes very complicated when she goes missing. Tossa and Dominic are then racing against time in a strange country in order to try to get her back. Ms. Peters' characters in this book are wonderfully drawn, and the story is a wonderful journey to a wonderful country.

Dominic Felse, the son of the famous policeman George Felse, met his girlfriend Tossa Barber in the earlier book in this series, Piper on the Mountain. Now, as a favor to Tossa's mother, Dominic and Tossa have agreed to escort a young girl named Angli out to meet her father in India. However, when they arrive they find that Angli's father has been missing for over a year, and soon Angli is kidnapped. The result is a good, fast-paced mystery, with some very interesting local color on India.

I'm really not enamored of any of Peters' non-Cadfael books. They're written well enough, but I find myself more often than not bored by them. I had hoped for better in this mystery set in India, but didn't find it. As a favor to his girlfriend Tossa's mother, Dominic Felse agrees to chaperone a young teenage girl and deliver her to her father in India. Once there, however, they discover that he is missing and are at a loss as to what to do with her. Then she is kidnapped and they must find a way to get her back. The story was interesting but fell a little flat, even to the end, and I could not relate to any of the characters. I'll stick to Cadfael.