A delightful mystery with quiet depths. Pros: Uzma Jalaluddin has a sure hand with plot, pacing, and character-building. The story rolls along smoothly and quickly; though the narration is 10.5 hours, the time flies by. The main character, Kausar Khan, is appealing and any woman/mother in her same time of life can quickly relate to her concerns, worries, and priorities, but there is multi-generational interest here: younger readers (30s) can relate to Kausar's daughter, Sana, and the character of Kausar's teenage granddaughter adds further perspective. The author includes a great deal of information about Desi culture--though never in an artificial, teachy way--which is particularly interesting to readers unfamiliar with South Asian traditions. This level of detail and scene-building adds much to the cozy flavor of the story. As the layers of involvement unfold, the family/community plotline adds a lot of interest. Themes of grief, generational trauma, depression, adolescence, independence, and later-life romance add surprising depth to the story: Kausar is a wise mother and Auntie, and the author lets us inside her thoughts and decisions in a way that add greatly to the story. Deepti Gupta does a wonderful job with the narration, neither going over the top or underplaying character voices.
Cons: Not many! There is of course a great deal of suspension of disbelief at Kausar being allowed the level of access and involvement she gets to the investigation, and the historic connection the author leans on for this access is a bit thin. Also to tie up the multiple plot threads at the end, the book relies on an Agatha-Christie-ish group reveal that, while a cute reference to Kausar's love of Christie mysteries, does make it nearly impossible for the reader to have a sense that they could have figured the mystery out based on the clues Kausar comes across along the way.
All this said, I can't wait for the next installment in this budding series!

This was so much fun while still touching on some very serious topics. The characters had a lot of depth, and I am looking forward to seeing how the events in this book will follow to the sequel, and this one hasn't even come out yet! I am already looking forward to book two! Amazing. Also it's really more intelligent than your average cozy (and I do enjoy cozies) and a bit like the Vera Wong books, by Jesse Q. Sutanto, in vibe. If you like mysteries but have limited patience for 'cozy mysteries", I would recommend taking a look at this one.