Death in Kashmir

Orphaned Sarah Parrish has travelled to India at the behest of her aunt to live for while, this is on the cusp of the transfer of India from British Rule in 1948. Sarah goes up to Kashmir skiing with a party of other English and while there meets Janet who turns out to be a secret agent with a message. Janet is being stalked and wants to get out of Kashmir, someone will be sent to get her out but she doesn't know if she will be able to get out before she is killed, so she passes on a message to Sarah. After Janet mysteriously dies Sarah does not tell anyone what she knows, but several months later she receives a letter from Janet's lawyers with a lease to a boat in Kashmir provided and a note from Janet asking her to stay there. Sarah knows whatever message she wants to pass on is on that boat and so she returns with friends to Kashmir but doesn't tell anyone what purpose it is for. Meantime Sarah has been interested in the gorgeous but mysterious Charles Mallory. He is not interested in any women having a gorgeous fiancee at home, it seems anyway. However he does end up kissing her, and then turning up in Kashmir as well. It turns out that Charles has a secret he doesn't want known, and Sarah must trust someone to help her find the message Janet left, and also to protect her from the other possible enemies including Helen Warrender and Mir. Lots of possibilities of problems and some creepy moments of people standing in shadowed doorways or intruding on black nights. Nice and suspenseful Loved the characters, and in this I really enjoyed the period speak and drama. The heroine, Sarah, was feisty and in keeping with her time, and there was a nice turn in romance.

This is one of my most loved books. It's true that I have read deeper books with more substance, even in the mystery genre. But M.M. Kaye wrote a top notch mystery for her time. She truly transports the reader to Kashmir, I could feel the house boat rocking as I was turning the pages. The ending came as a complete surprise and was absolutely stunning. Yes, it is a light novel, but hey, isn't it entertainment we want from mysteries?

M. M. Kaye is my favorite author, and "Death in Kashmir" is her best mystery. The atmosphere she creates is incredible and top-notch; I literally felt that I was there experiencing it all with our spunky heroine. This is a wonderful, atmospheric, period-piece work of fiction - not to be missed by devotees of Kaye!

I love M. M. Kaye's mysteries, set in exotic locales. They bring back that time in British history when so much of the world was theirs. All the usual British characters show up in these books. Tourist or army types seeing the sights, acting mysterious, whispering in the night. I just love the feel of these classics, they always entertain and make you wish you were there.

When my mother said this was the best book she had ever read I couldn't believe her and decided to read it for myself. I was instantly taken to Kashmir and discovered how fantastic this unknown place sounded. It was the middle of summer and the writing was so detailed that I had shivers running up my spine. This was one of those books that I just wished would never end. I felt as though I was part of the story. When I was done with this book I said to my mom," why don't People write books like this anymore? Have people really become that dependent on violence and gore that they miss out on all the good books?" And mom said, "that is why I saved this book. I am glad I did cause nothing that even compared to this has come along since!"