Fresh Fiction Blog | Review Spotlight: A South Indian mystery to pick up: WRATH OF SHIVA

Summer is a great time to try out something a little different and our reviewer Katherine Petersen found a mystery series set in the South India region where tourists go to relax and don't expect to find murder. Photographer Anita Ray has her hands full with her family and their tourist hotel so when there's all kinds of mysterious happenings on the family estate and a missing cousin, it's just added complications.

Our Review

Photographer and amateur sleuth Anita Ray makes her second appearance in THE WRATH of SHIVA by Susan Oleksiw. Personally, I enjoyed this series installment much more than the first mystery, UNDER THE EYE OF KALI although some of the characters who play roles in THE WRATH of SHIVA are introduced in the earlier novel.
The mystery begins when Surya, Anita's cousin-sister doesn't arrive as planned from her latest trip abroad. When Anita and her Auntie Meena, who owns the Hotel Delite that Anita helps her run, go to what's left of the family estate to help out Anita's great aunt and Surya's grandmother, Punnu Chellamma, they find much more going on than they expected.
Gauri, one of the long-time servants is going into trances although she blithely says she is possessed by the angry goddess Bhagavati. Konan, the family astrologer recommends an exorcism, a traditional custom, which serves to peak Anita's suspicions more than it seems to help Gauri. A brutal attack on the cook's assistant and an attack on Anita herself fuel her determination to root out what's happening. Many of the family sacred images have allegedly been sent out to be cleaned of "bronze disease," but Anita doesn't believes they have vanished for other reasons and how does Surya's disappearance fit into this tumultuous picture?
Much of the storyline pits tradition vs. modernity, and Anita's upbringing mirrors this dichotomy as she lives in India but was raised in the United States. So, she doesn't always act as her Auntie Meena wishes. There are more details that I can't give away as well as a larger role played by Anita's friend, Anand, a potential love interest.
Oleksiw does a nice job creating interesting characters and weaving the dialect of lifestyle of southern India into her story. It's quite easy to feel the sea spray, hear the sounds of animals at night and crave hear the sea with her characters.