Title: The Blue Monsoon
(Blue Mumbai #2)
Author: Damyanti Biswas
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Detective
First published: October 24th 2023
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Finished reading: October 9th 2023
Pages: 394

“Hard work on its own was as effective as a bullet outside a gun. It meant nothing, a heavy, dull thing – valued, but inert. A bullet came into its own only when you slotted it in the chamber.”

*** A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***

REVIEW

I enjoyed the first book of this detective thriller series set in Mumbai when I read it earlier this year, and I’ve been looking forward to read the sequel. I do love a good story with an international setting, and it’s not often that I get to armchair travel to India… Add a healthy dose of murder and a focus on personal developments in main character Arnav’s life, and I was very excited to start reading The Blue Monsoon. I can’t deny that it turned out to be a very solid sequel indeed!

There is no doubt that once again Mumbai is the star of the show. The Indian setting is what brought this series on my radar in the first place, and both books have more than delivered so far. There are so many vivid descriptions of both the city itself and the local culture and customs, and it really helped giving some insight in what life in Mumbai is like. There is a useful glossary in the back to help with the unfamiliar terms, and you will also find a complete list of characters you can fall back on if you don’t exactly remember who everyone is and/or where they stand. I do recommend reading the books in order though, because you will be missing out on important character background otherwise.

The plot in The Blue Monsoon is both complex and intricate, and it was interesting to see everything slowly coming together. There is a lot of focus on politics and religion as well as Indian culture; while intriguing, I did feel it ended up overpowering the plot in points. In fact, I’m positive it ended up affecting the pace as well, and it took me a lot longer than expected to actually finish this story. Part of this might just have been the reading slump talking, but the pace did seem a lot slower than in the first book. I can’t deny that this sequel goes out with a bang though, and things definitely speed up towards the ending.

It was great to meet up with main character Arnav again, and I really appreciated the focus on his personal life as well as the police investigation itself. This balance really enriched the plot and it gave everything that happened even more impact. There is no doubt that the case in The Blue Monsoon ended up hitting very close to home! That said, I could have done without the love triangle vibe and Sita pining for Arnav… It kind of put a damper on things for me, but then again I’m always allergic to love triangles.

If you are looking for a complex, vivid and well written detective thriller where the Mumbai setting really jumps off the page, I can recommend both Blue Mumbai books. Armchair travel and murder; what more can you ask for?

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