Monthly Archives: February 2015

“Pirate Vishnu” is the second in a series of mystery by Gigi Pandian. The series features Jaya Jones, a young Indian-American history professor. I really enjoyed the first book in this series “Artifact” and was hoping the second would be almost as good. Actually, it was even better. This whodunnit chases all over the map from San Francisco to India and back again.

Jaya is once again joined by her friends Lane, Nadia, and Sanjay. Along the way, we get a brief history lesson about San Francisco at the time of the Great Earthquake of 1906, some of the signs of struggle of the Indian people against the British colonial rule, and also about magicians and the “spiritualism” trend of the turn of the last century. In addition to the friends we already know, we get introduced to several new characters that I hope to see in future books – Tamarind the librarian (a kind of goth meets punk lady) and Naveen, an unpleasant fellow professor who is Jaya’s competition for tenure at their university.

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“Basic Law” is the first book I have read by J. Sydney Jones. It took me a few pages to get caught up in the book but once I did so, I really could not put it down. I wonder if the use of present tense interfered with my initial enjoyment of the book – it is a recent trend that I have noticed in suspense/mystery books and one that I am not entirely comfortable with as yet.

The story is set in primarily Germany during the early to mid 1990s. I mention this because I had to gleam it from the book as I read along. I thought at first that it was set in the present but that would make the protagonist a man in his sixties and that didn’t match his actions and physical abilities. The action races across Germany, Austria, Crete, and the Czech Republic and back again.

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“Artifact” is the first book I have read by Gigi Pandian. I have been a cozy mystery fan since my early teens when I first discovered mysteries by Elizabeth Peters (under all of her aliases), Georgette Heyer, and others. Back in the day, having a female protagonist in a mystery was unusual and I was immediately captivated by Ms. Peters’ Amelia Peabody and have read every book since. When Ms. Peters recently passed, we lost a great mystery writer.

The heroine of “Artifact” Jayla Jones, reminded me of Amelia Peabody but in a much more updated and sassy sort of way. It may be that the subject of archeology is common to both characters but I think it has as much to do with attitude. While Jayla brought Peabody to mind, she is very much her own character. In one individual, the author brings together Asia and the New World and then promptly plants her in the wilds of Scotland. Truly a global character.

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“Where They Found Her” is a multi-layered mystery that kept me in suspense for most of the book. While there were elements of the story that I solved very early on, there were others that were a complete shock and surprise to me. The clues where there when I looked backwards but I never expected so many “whodunnits” to be tied together in one book.

The author expertly wove the various story lines together using a variety of written works, including an old journal, a newer journal, online newspaper articles, and first and third person narratives. It didn’t take very long to understand the reason for the various sources as they started forming a single story. It was kind of like seeing a painting being painted from the outer edges in toward the middle.

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I have read most of the books in this series. In some ways, “Deceptive Measures” reads almost as a conclusion to the series. I hope that is not the case as I have enjoyed reading it. It is as equally fast-paced as its predecessors and packs a lot into a fairly short novel.

In the story, the protagonist (Rachel) is chasing clues about her daughter (who was kidnapped years before.) She is convinced that she will find her daughter and is tenacious about it. This tenacity is one of the most outstanding, and to me believable, parts of this series. I can’t image any loving parent giving up on find their child. It is interesting that Rachel has taken her search and created not only a career for herself but also a fairly substantial business who are dedicated to finding individuals who have been snatched.

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