I wish I’d made chai for this occasion, but the truth is that I didn’t intend to try and solve Detective Aunty until I had a flash of insight in the middle of Chapter 26 that convinced me I knew who the killer was. If you’ve read the book, or oh my gosh, if you’re Uzma Jalaluddin herself, and know that the vital clue has not been dropped yet by this point, then please feel free to laugh at my hubris! Either way, I’m going to go with my gut and lock my guess in.
As some of my friends know, Uzma Jalaluddin is my die-hard auto-buy author. I loved Ayesha at Last, absolutely adored Hana Khan Carries On, and gave my heart over to Much Ado About Nada. And as long-time readers of this blog will know, I absolutely ADORE cozy mysteries, especially those by Agatha Christie, so when I learned about Detective Aunty, I had it on my buy list long before the actual release date.
Kausar Khan is a widow in her mid-50s who has always had a knack for observation and mystery-solving. When her mid-30s daughter, Sana, is the prime suspect in a murder, Kausar leaves her comfy home in North Bay to help her daughter out. The victim, Imran Thakur, is the landlord at the shopping plaza where Sana owns a desi clothing store; he was found at her store before hours, stabbed with a dagger from the window display. By many accounts, Imran is a terrible person, who cares only about making money, and isn’t above taking advantage of people to get it.
Long-time Jalaluddin fans will be thrilled to note that the mystery takes place in the Golden Crescent shopping plaza in Scarborough. It’s a nice shoutout to the Golden Crescent neighbourhood in Jalaluddin’s romances, though if there are any fun crossover Easter eggs, I missed them. (I was especially on the look out for Three Sisters Biryani Poutine to make an appearance, but alas, no.)
Long-time mystery fans will enjoy Kausar Khan as a detective. The obvious parallel is Miss Marple: like Christie’s sleuth, Kausar is often underestimated due to her age, and strategic meekness with a dupatta. Like the Marple novels, Detective Aunty is an insightful skewering of society’s often dismissive attitudes towards older women. Kausar gets away with bold questioning of suspects, and at one point, with actually getting caught snooping in a private area, simply because people assume she’s just after gossip for the neighbourhood aunties’ group chat.
Jalaluddin adds her own touches to the Marple archetype: Kausar is much younger for one, only in her mid-50s. This opens up possibilities for romance (LOVE that subplot!), and also a different sort of energy: while Marple is content to knit and quietly make her observations, Kausar is set for her next stage in life. Having married young, and been a stay-at-home mom all her life, widowhood now gives her the chance to live on her own, and discover for herself who she is, independent of her husband and his career. There are cultural and generational nuances that add richness to Kausar’s journey, and I’m totally here for it.
Kausar is also more overtly feisty than Miss Marple. While Christie’s detective veils her razor sharp barbs with a gentle veneer of wide-eyed harmlessness, Kausar doesn’t hesitate to let hers fly. For example, while dealing with an infuriatingly condescending man, she snaps that they’re so close in age that he should call her Mrs. Khan, not Aunty. Then she gives him a saccharine sweet smile, because, of course, she was only being polite.
Finally, Kausar also has shades of Sherlock Holmes. She makes observations about physical details, that then lead to major clues. The parallels are a bit more subtle, but like Holmes, her talent for observation doesn’t always rub people the right way.
Overall, I’m absolutely adoring this book. I love Kausar, and I LOVE her sidekick BFFs, May in North Bay and Fatima in Toronto. I also like the romance brewing between her and the silver fox lawyer, and I love all the complexities of her family relationships. There’s so much rich material here for the series, and I’m excited to see where Jalaluddin takes this.
Did I Solve It?
No, I didn’t, not even close. I was so far off-base, in fact, that the character I’d selected as the killer wasn’t even invited to Kausar’s big reveal gathering. When I fail, I fail spectacularly.
Honestly, the actual big reveal made me sad. Jalaluddin did a great job at making me care for some of these characters, and I felt bad for how things are likely to unfold for them after this reveal.
On the bright side, the novel does end with a bit of a teaser for the next mystery. Kausar Khan will be back at Golden Crescent someday (hopefully soon!), and I’m really excited to see more of her story unfold.
***SPOILERS BELOW***
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