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sophia_sol) wrote2020-11-26 08:45 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2020-11-26 08:45 pm
The Satapur Moonstone, by Sujata Massey
Sequel to The Widows of Malabar Hill, this is another mystery novel starring Perveen, a woman lawyer in 1920's India. I didn't like this one as much as the first one -- it took SO LONG to get going. The main mystery took place in the palace of Satapur, and Perveen only even got to the palace more than a third of the way into the book! Once the mystery got properly going I became more drawn in, but wow that took a long time coming. By the time I got to the end of the book I was glad I read it, but I nearly gave up on it multiple times.
I think my biggest issue is that in my opinion books need to have some sort of emotional or character arc, not just a plot arc. Even mystery books. Yes, when a mystery series has a consistent detective character, the character arc can't always be for that lead character, because there's only so much growth one person can be expected to do. But there's plenty of scope in secondary characters! I think this is one of the things that made the first book work better for me; Perveen herself had an arc, it wasn't solely about the mystery she was solving. And that was well done and made me care a lot about her! But in this one she's just the vehicle for solving what's going on in Satapur.
And there are some secondary characters who could have had some really interesting stuff if the narrative chose to focus on their arc. I think the dancing woman especially (sorry, I forget her name). But the narrative didn't seem to be particularly interested in that kind of thing; the characters all felt pretty static to me.
Also. What was up with the whole situation with the temporarily missing camera! That was brought up multiple times as a thing, and then at the end of the book it's just....left by the wayside. Was this intending to set something up for the next book? If so it should still be brought back around as an open question, instead of it feeling like it's just "whatever, she got her camera back, that's all that matters."
Well, I'll give the next book in the series a try when it comes out, but if that one doesn't work for me then I'll be giving up on the series, I think.
I think my biggest issue is that in my opinion books need to have some sort of emotional or character arc, not just a plot arc. Even mystery books. Yes, when a mystery series has a consistent detective character, the character arc can't always be for that lead character, because there's only so much growth one person can be expected to do. But there's plenty of scope in secondary characters! I think this is one of the things that made the first book work better for me; Perveen herself had an arc, it wasn't solely about the mystery she was solving. And that was well done and made me care a lot about her! But in this one she's just the vehicle for solving what's going on in Satapur.
And there are some secondary characters who could have had some really interesting stuff if the narrative chose to focus on their arc. I think the dancing woman especially (sorry, I forget her name). But the narrative didn't seem to be particularly interested in that kind of thing; the characters all felt pretty static to me.
Also. What was up with the whole situation with the temporarily missing camera! That was brought up multiple times as a thing, and then at the end of the book it's just....left by the wayside. Was this intending to set something up for the next book? If so it should still be brought back around as an open question, instead of it feeling like it's just "whatever, she got her camera back, that's all that matters."
Well, I'll give the next book in the series a try when it comes out, but if that one doesn't work for me then I'll be giving up on the series, I think.