Hot Stage by Anita Nair

It's Hump Day! The week is halfway through (although it feels like it's been zooming by!).

Today I'm a stop on the Random Things Tour for Anita Nair's latest, Hot Stage. 

It's no secret that Professor Raghava Mudgood had enemies. He'd made a name for himself calling out what he viewed as right wing fascism. So much so that threats had been made on his life. 

By all accounts, though, his death appears—at least at first—to be a tragic accident. A heart attack while steaming over a hot pot. 

ACP Borei Gowda îs called to the scene in spite of being on leave and immediately has his doubts about the death being by natural causes. With his investigation being tied to a real estate lawsuit (the subject of which is the deceased's son in law), Gowda is forced to face the dark underbelly of Bangalore.

This is the latest in the Inspector Gowda series that began with A Cut-Like Wound and continued in Chain of Custody. You can read this one as a stand-alone, but there is a brief mention/recap of the first two books at the start, which means some spoilers if you go back and read those after the fact. 

Gowda is a curmudgeon, one of my favorite tropes of the genre. He's in an unhappy marriage, having an affair, and has earned promotion, in his mind, as a way of keeping him quiet about things he's uncovered in past cases. 

He's also determined and willing to put himself at risk for a case. 

With the series, Nair offers readers a look at politics, counter cultures, and police procedure in India, something I'd not really had a chance to dive into before. And I have to say I absolutely love it!

I had not yet read first two in the series, but I am definitely seeking them out now!

Hot Stage is out now from Bitter Lemon Press!