A Mumbai Murder Mystery is an engaging and very well written crime mystery and the first book in the Temple Hill series by Meeti Shroff-Shah. Released 9th Dec 2021 by Joffe Books, it's 284 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free.

I enjoyed this book quite a lot. The protagonist is likable and real, despite her very privileged upbringing. Coming back home to India (and her gossipy and unsympathetic family friends and acquaintances after personal upheaval) is a huge and unwanted change which she navigates with humor and a little face-saving mistruth here and there.

There is a warmth and humor in the writing which appealed to me and the clever plotting and mystery reminded me in some ways of Richard Osman, although it's not at all derivative. The author is quite adept at descriptive prose and the food, clothing, and settings are written superbly.

Four stars. I'm definitely engaged in the series and looking forward to finding out what comes next.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Meeti Shroff-Shah does a great job of describing Mumbai and all the characters and locations. I really felt like I could see and hear and smell the city. Lots of interesting food descriptions, too.

The mystery was well-developed and the amateur sleuth performed well. But the thing to really recommend is the atmosphere.

This is book one in the new Temple Hill Mystery series.

After returning home to escape the pain of a failed relationship, Radhi is thrown into the mystery of her best friend’s father’s death. A total amateur detective book; but I love how well done it was. It was believable, and an interesting look at the culture in Mumbai.

The author leaves just enough questions unanswered to make you want to devour the next in the series; but answers enough that you don’t feel like it was wasted time to read.

📌 Pub Date: December 9, 2021

I was given an ARC of this story to read; but thoughts and opinions are all my own. Thank you to NetGalley and Joffe Books for the chance to read this book!

Oh my, this book was a surprise in the best possible way. I expected from the cover a historical mystery (and that is my only complaint, that the cover does not match the book).

I absolutely loved this mystery, full of facades, pretences, resentment. Interesting characters, setting was superb. Just everything was excellent.

All the stars from me.

A mystery by a debut author set in Southeast Asia with an engaging amateur detective seemed just the thing when I was perusing books and looking for a new mystery. Not long after delving into Temple Hill the posh Mumbai neighborhood, getting a description of life, food, and people, and then a possible murder to tickle my fancy, I had no doubt that I would be enjoying A Mumbai Murder Mystery to the hilt.



A Mumbai Murder Mystery introduces ‘Radhi’ Zaveri. She lived a decade in NYC and has returned to the home her deceased parents left her to lick her wounds after a relationship goes sour and her writing muse dries up and to figure out who she is when back in her traditional culture. Her welcome home seems all she could expect until she learns her pregnant best friend is absent from the party and Sanjana’s irascible father, Kirti, has just committed suicide. Only, Radhi knows this man and, along with Sanjana, is highly skeptical of the suicide verdict. Her insider track with the family has her spotting evidence that doesn’t add up especially near the dead man and she finds herself stepping into an investigative role alongside her friend who refuses to believe her strong-willed parent would end things like that.

As with many books set in a different country, I have hopes that culture, society, religion, and culinary elements will play a strong role in the setting and background, that dialogue and characters will jive with the setting, and I can immerse myself in a different place. Since the author was writing from her own knowledge, this turned out to be the case and the Jain neighborhood of Temple Hill came to life for me. People on the social rise and a tight-knit place where everyone knew each other’s business. Life, careers, religion, and oh glorious food were prominent.

Radhi turned out to be a delightful detective heroine. She needs a new start and really needs to get her writing back on track. Even her health and mental health has let her down. Radhi is experiencing an identity crisis of sorts when she feels she is straddling two worlds represented by her as the woman back in NYC and her the woman in Mumbai. I liked seeing her get back in stride and find a new start in her home city and among those she knows. I like that this will be a series so there will be more of Radhi and the people of Temple Hill.

As to the mystery, I really didn’t try to solve it. I was caught up in all that was going on so I was content to look over Radhi and Sanjana’s shoulders as they put together Kirti’s life and movements leading up to his death. I thought the mystery was well-written and concluded moderately well. As this is a debut, I can only see these getting better. It felt more cozy than thriller as to tone and the way this was also Radhi’s story.

All in all, it hit the spot and I was well-pleased with trying something new. Recommend to cozy mystery fans who like a diversity-rich setting and an amateur sleuth.

I do love a good crime fiction with interesting characters. This one was a surprisingly good take on the old trope of family drama resolved by an amateur sleuth. Meeti Shroff-Shah may be new to the crime author business, but I would love to see more stories from her.

The story revolves around the wealthy family of the Kadakias after the patriarch's death. His daughter is best friends with our more-than-willing and oh-so-capable sleuth, a young divorced Indian woman who recently moved back to Mumbai from the US, and who is also breaking all sorts of traditions with her simple existance. Radhika, our sleuth, is a writer suffering from writer's block and slight depression, but finds herself drawn into the family drama to support her pregnant friend. I liked how the scenario played out into a book within a book as a result.

Shroff-Shah comes across as a connoiseur of the Indian families, traditions and food. Every word sounded authentic from her mouth, with just the right amount shared, never too much. The story, the places, the people feel so alive (even the dead) they could walk off the pages, you can smell the food. Her style of writing is plain brilliant, the detective created is lovable, smart and ruthless if needed.

I also liked the glossary of Indian English usage at the end: it is a godsend to people like me who are not well versed in Indian cuisine, traditions, family relations or just simply in Indian:-)

Thank you to NetGalley, the Author and the Publisher with providing me with an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a really well-paced mystery book that took you to the heart of Mumbai which I loved. The writing of the author was incredibly vivid, the characters were well-rounded and the pacing of the plot was perfect for me.

Things were generally tied up by the author at the end of the book, which I appreciated, and I definitely want to read more stories by the author. This felt like a classic amateur detective story, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

I really enjoyed A Mumbai Murder Mystery by Meeti Shroff-Shah. I did have to spend a lot of time looking up the food items being served because it all sounded so good! The mystery was a good one and the descriptions of the Temple Hill residents and their religion and customs was a good introduction to a culture I knew nothing about. I hope we see more from this author.

A Mumbai Murder Mystery by Meeti Shroff-Shah is a fast-moving mystery with plenty of cultural and culinary highlights, keeping the reader's interest. The Jain family of Radhi, who has returned to Mumbai from the US to mend a broken heart and deal with writer's block, and her friend Sanjana are the two most intriguing characters in the book. Sanjana's father is found dead, ostensibly by his own hand, but this is found to be untrue. Radhi becomes a self-appointed detective and eventually finds the person who has committed two murders. The end of the book goes a direction one would never expect when Radhi identifies the culprit. The setting of Mumbai and the apartment building on Temple Hill give a slice of life among the neighborhood of wealthy Jains whose mysterious interactions keep the reader completely engaged. I hope this is only the beginning of more books by this author.

This is the start of a new series and it can become a favorite as I love this installment.
It's a solid mystery, gripping and entertaining. The background is fascinating and I learned something more about Indian culture, religion and way of living.
The characters are fleshed out and interesting, the solid mystery kept me guessing.
The author is a talented storyteller and I liked the style of writing.
Can't wait to read the next story.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I blitzed through this book over the weekend as I just could not get enough. I enjoyed every second. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

When a family patriarch is found dead in wealthy Temple Hill apparently having committed suicide, writer Radhika “Radhi” Vareli, newly returned from New York and recuperating from a failed relationship, writer’s block and anxiety, begins questioning the police’s verdict when she notices some odd things and inconsistent statements.
Digging into the various alibis is easier as she is a longtime, trusted friend of the family, and in particular one of the man’s children, Sanjana, pregnant deeply grieving her father’s death, and unable to accept the verdict of suicide.

I picked this book on a whim, and found it entertaining. The status obsession, casual cruelty, misogyny, and nosiness of the family members and their neighbours in the apartment complex all rang true from my memories of the community I grew up in. The mystery had plenty of suspects, with credible motives, and I enjoyed puzzling my way through the alibis. I also liked seeing a slice of contemporary Mumbai’s affluent Jain community, but what I found particularly fun about this book was reading about the mouthwateringly yummy snacks and meals everyone was eating. I kept having the munchies while reading this enjoyable debut.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Joffre Books for this ARC in exchange for my review.

family-dynamics, cozy-mystery, India, cultural-exploration, mystery, author, class-consciousness, amateur-sleuth*****

Great start to a new mystery series! It's especially interesting for those of us who have little understanding of life a very busy city in India. People are the same everywhere (and so are the gossipmongers), but the cultural differences (and names!) are like the flavors of the foods the author tantalizes us with. The mystery plot is well done and full of interesting characters, twists, and red herrings (but I still get hung up on the foods!). The only thing is that I wish it was in audio because I really would like to hear the names correctly.
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Joffe Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

Once I had come to grips with unfamiliar Indian names I was hooked. Although considered to be a suicide, Kirti's daughter Sanajan thinks otherwise as does her friend Radhi, recently returned to Mumbai from the States after breaking up with her boyfriend and suffering writer's block. The two chibble away at the family members and friends with as many red herrings, twists and turns as you could wish in order to tease out what really happened. The characters are well-drawn and realistic, I loved learning about this particular Indian culture as well as the descriptions of the foods. In many respects, life in the rich and privileged Temple Hill sounded like the modern equivalent of the British Raj - appearance is crucial, pomposity, inherent belief that they are superior, traditions (even if the food sounds much more enticing than tiffin!). I hope we have more of Radhi and friends. Thanks to NetGalley and Joffe Books for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

A Mumbai Mystery is a wonderful book. It is a great mystery in the sense of keeping the reader in suspense until the end. The mystery is set in Mumbai and our detective is a woman who has recently returned home to Mumbai from 10 years spent in New York and in the aftermath of a failed relationship, although we're not told much about why the relationship failed.
She returns to Temple Hill an affluent area of the city where wealthy people live a fairly closeted and intensely inward looking communities in apartments. I loved reading about the community and the environment and feel I've really had an insight into that life. It was quite magical for all of these contextual elements.
I would heartily recommend this title to anyone who enjoys a classical amateur detective mystery novel. And to anyone who wants to find out a bit more about India and the lifestyle there. The characters were well drawn and humour threads through the book with a lightness of touch.

Posh Temple Hill in Mumbai is normally a peaceful place, full of Jains who believe that all life is precious. Successful novelist Radhika (Radhi) Zaveri has returned home after the end of her relationship with a much older man and is struggling with anxiety, indigestion, insomnia and hasn’t written a word in months. She plans to open up the apartment of her late parents and take up residence there, making a new start for herself after a decade away in the US. At the welcome party thrown by her sister Madhavi, she notices that her best friend since childhood Sanjana, a paediatric surgeon who is five months pregnant, is nowhere to be seen. When she visits Sanjana the next day a terrible shock lies in store for her. Sanjana’s father Kirti Kadakia appears to have committed suicide, taking pills and suffocating himself. Immediately Radhi can’t believe her ears. This normally tough and argumentative man just wouldn’t do that! What on earth could have happened to make him do such a terrible deed? As Radhi and Sanjana delve a little deeper, it appears that Kirti spoke to many people on the day of his death and had problems he was hiding, and the circumstances of his death start to seem suspicious. Radhi and Sanjana are determined to get to the bottom of what happened to Kirti that day, now convinced that he must have been murdered. Slowly and surely they start to peel away the lies and get to the truth. So just how many worried people are keeping secrets and do they have anything to do with Kirti’s death? And how far will they go to cover up and save face in a world where appearance and status is everything?
There are many twists and red herrings to fool the reader as the author weaves a vivid and colourful tale set in a fascinating world full of affluent people with chauffeurs, food sellers and servants, where old world values mix and often go head-to-head with newer and more modern ways of living. As the back stories to some of the characters were explained, I found I had a much greater empathy with some who appeared not too likeable at first sight. I very much enjoyed this first story in a new series. It gave me a wonderful insight into a world very different from my own, and a greater understanding of their ways, traditions and customs. The use of Indian words gave the story a great feeling of authenticity where I could really visualise all the characters, and the book has a helpful glossary at the end of the book for those unfamiliar with any of them. I also had a lot of fun researching recipes for some of the many mouth-watering recipes mentioned! I look forward to the next Temple Hill Mystery. 5*

Radhi Zaveri returns to her Temple Hill home after being gone for some time. She's anxious to see most of her family and especially her best friend, Sanjana.

She is shocked to learn that Sanjana's father has committed suicide ... at least that's what the police say. But Radhi has her doubts. For one, suicide is less tragic than the loss of face. Sanjana's father had much to live for ... most especially the future birth of his grandchild.

As a writer, Radhi is determined to get at the truth. But the more she investigates, she more she finds herself immersed in long-buried secrets and hidden agendas.

This well-written novel is full of Indian culture, religious beliefs, and social context. The plot is intriguing, the story line swirling around deftly drawn characters. The only problem I had was pronouncing the names and locations, but that was not a deterrent to immersing myself into a suspense from start to finish.

This is the first of what seems to be a fascinating series. I look forward to seeing what happens next in the life of Radhi Zaveri. I especially want to learn more about the culture in India and its people. I really appreciated the inclusion of the glossary of Indian Language.

Many thanks to the author / Joffe Books / Books n All Promotions // Netgalley for the digital copy of this mystery. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Joffe Books for an advance copy of A Mumbai Murder Mystery, the first novel set in the Temple Hill area of Mumbai to feature writer Radhi Zaveri.

Rhadi has returned to Temple Hill with a broken heart and writer’s block, but her return is marred by the suicide of her best friend, Sanjana’s father. Or is it suicide? Rhadi and Sanjana aren’t so sure.

I thoroughly enjoyed A Mumbai Murder Mystery, which is a cosy mystery with a warm, vibrant atmosphere. The novel is told entirely from Rhadi’s point of view, so the reader knows what she knows and can guess along with her. I failed miserably so the reveal was a surprise to me, but fairly obvious when explained.

I like the author’s approach to the plot. There is no sensational reveal or big development, instead it is a steady accumulation of small facts and discoveries, which together lead to the unassailable, if not provable, truth.

In some ways, however, the plot takes second place to the world of Temple Hill. The denizens are rich and place appearance above everything else as the most important value in their lives, so unlike the Templehill area of my hometown. Their interactions are fascinating, but maybe not so different from rich enclaves the world over and that’s a guess, not being part of that rarified world. I was equally fascinated by the Indian lifestyle and food that the author depicts. It is a rich atmosphere and the author makes no apologies or offers any explanations for it. I didn’t get some of the terms used although frequent use gave me an idea, like I think didi means sister. I didn’t find it annoying I think it added to the rich tapestry of life in a foreign country.

I like Rhadi, who is a mixture of Indian and western cultures. She has plenty of neuroses, but also the smarts to battle them and this novel sees her come to terms with the tragedy of her past and set out towards a brighter future. I’m looking forward to following her journey.

A Mumbai Murder Mystery is a good read that I have no hesitation in recommending.

Thank you Netgalley and Joffe Books for the eARC.

This is a "cozy" mystery set in Mumbai. The book moves at a good clip. There are no shocking revelations in the plot though there are a lot of digressions into food descriptions. This might work well for someone though but became a little too many interludes for me. A quick read and recommended for others.

What's the book about?
Radhi Zaveri is an award-winning novelist who escapes to her home at Temple Hill to mend a broken heart and to deal with a humiliating writer’s block. Once there, she finds out her pregnant best friend, Sanjana’s father has killed himself. Radhi suspects this is a homicide and is determined to uncover the truth.

My thoughts:
An enjoyable, fast paced, whodunnit murder mystery.
I would have loved to read more about high society life in Mumbai and Radhi's feelings about life in the US as opposed to her privileged life in India.