The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown, a review

I was so excited when I found the second book in the Baby Ganesh Agency Investigation series. This is such a fun mystery series set in India, following a man who inherited a baby elephant after he was forcefully retired from the police (those two events were unrelated 😂)

I adore these style of books, similar to Agatha Christie’s Poirot. They’re fun and silly, whilst still having some very serious themes and engaging content.

With this being the second book in the series I enjoyed how it continued on with some of the plotlines we’d encountered in the first book as well as adding its individual mystery component.

On CAWPILE I rated this: Charaters: 9, Atmosphere: 8, Writing: 8, Plot: 7, Intrigue: 8, Logic: 8, and Enjoyment: 9. Overall this gives the book a score of 8.14 which is a solid 4 star read.

I definitely want to continue with this series so cross your fingers for me that I can find the same editions!!

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

I’d heard wonderful things about this book so of course I snatched it up when I saw it in the charity shop. As expected it sat on my tbr for a ridiculous length of time until I finally got around to reading it!

I’ve seen this described as Agatha Christie meets groundhog day and… it’s just the perfect explanation. Take a Christie style mystery, and lock them into one location using some time loops and trickery, and see what comes of it!

I adored how bits of the mystery were slowly revealed to us, as well as adding in more mystery along the way! There was so much character development, and given the nature of the book (I ain’t giving ANY spoilers!) this was done incredibly well and I love how different characters were interwoven.

The one thing that I felt let this book down was the ending. Of course given that it’s a Christie-esque novel you do expect the details to be wrapped up in a nice little bow. But it felt a little bit unbelievable, and a bit too far with how the conclusion lay. A few small tweaks here would’ve made the book perfect for me.

On CAWPILE I gave the book:

Characters: 8

Atmosphere: 8

Writing: 8

Plot: 7

Intrigue: 7

Logic: 7

Enjoyment: 8

Which gave me an overall score of 7.57 which is a lovely 4 star read!

Highlight here for trigger warnings: fatphobia, murder, gun violence, child death, suicide, death of parent, drug use, ableism, animal death, infidelity, rape, mental illness, torture

So despite the ending not quite being up to snuff for me, I did still love this book! And I will say that this does really pull off the Agatha Christie vibes incredibly well! I rate most of her books 4 stars too so that even matches up! I’m excited to read more from this author! (and I already have The Devil and the Dark Water on my shelves!) Let me know whether you’ve read this book and what you thought of it!