“Where Gods Dwell” by Leigh Copeland

Jonathan Prosper, mid-20s, has left Oxford and England behind him. With his father’s bank embezzlement overshadowing his own reputation, he hopes to make his way in India, gain some measure of wealth, and return to Oxford. But the tea and imported carpet business provides only so much income, and he’s found himself acting as a “confidential agent,” or private detective. It’s the 1930s, the last years of the British Raj.

He’s hired by a jute manufacturing manager to see if the rumors about his wife are true. But before he can complete his investigation, the client is murdered. His personal servant is missing and suspected of the crime. But the client’s wife is not convinced; she hires Jonathan to look into the crime. The suspects include her own brother, an officer in the local British garrison.

And it seems that more people are interested on what’s happened, including what would be the rough equivalent of the Raj’s FBI. The body of one of their agents has been found in the river, and there may be a connection to the death of the jute plant manager. Prosper soon finds himself immersed in union politics, religious conflicts, and odd things happening with the garrison.

Leigh Copeland

Where Gods Dwell by Leigh Copeland is the first of the Jonathan Prosper mysteries, and it’s a deep, fascinating dive into the Indian sub-continent of the period. Much of the story is set in East Bengal, or what is now Bangladesh, and Copeland artfully blends historical research into a compelling account. (I read the third in the series, Kiss Miss, first, but the stories are standalone and work individually as well as together.)

Born in Melbourne, Australia, Copeland graduated in Politics and Sociology at Monash University. He and his wife operate a business dealing in antique carpets and rare textiles from Afghanistan and India, and he’s made more than 50 trips to the two countries. He’s published five novels in the Jonathan Prosper series: Where Gods Dwell, The Body in the Bokhara, Kiss Miss, Full Moon, and Calcutta Cabob. 

Where Gods Dwell is a fine mystery. Prosper is just the right blend of slightly cynical and knowledgeable Englishman. He knows his own place in the Indian / British hierarchy, and he understands how both the British and the people they rule work. It’s a great read.

Related:

Kiss Miss by Leigh Copeland.

"Kiss Miss" by Leigh Copeland

Jonathan Prosper, 25, lives in Calcutta. It’s 1935, the twilight of the British Raj in India. Prosper is trying to make enough and save enough money to finish his education in England. He has a tea business doing moderately well and a few other small business interests. To supplement what he makes, he undertakes investigations, primarily for the resident Britons.

He lives in not the best part of Calcutta, but not the worst, either. His next-door neighbor operates a rooming house, and she calls him to help with an unexpected visitor. American travel writer Kandy Kincaid has arrived in borrowed clothes, rather disheveled looking, and with no money. She’s been in the north, surviving an arduous trek and housed for a time in a Buddhist monastery. She’s been out of circulation for months, and she’s pleased to discover that her books are selling well. She has a new book to write, and Prosper offers her a room and his typewriter. Soon she’s dominating his typewriter. And more.

The Destranges, English friends of Prosper living in a well-known Calcutta housing compound, seek his help. Construction work on their tennis court has uncovered a skeleton, dressed in Victorian clothes and still wearing jewelry. The newspapers have a field day. The police are baffled, but the Destranges think that Prosper might uncover the dead woman’s identity by going through the voluminous records in their library. 

Leigh Copeland

Prosper will find more than he’s looking for. It isn’t just one dead woman. And then a young woman staying with the Destranges is found dead in the pavilion next to the tennis court.

Kiss Miss by Leigh Copeland in one of five novels in the Jonathan Prosper series. And it’s pitch perfect, credibly transporting the reader back to the waning days of the Raj, and giving an insightful taste of the reality of the class structure, the streets, and the passions underlying all those proper British manners. 

Born in Melbourne, Australia, Copeland graduated in Politics and Sociology at Monash University. He and his wife operate a business dealing in antique carpets and rare textiles from Afghanistan and India, and he’s made more than 50 trips to the two countries. He’s published five novels in the Jonathan Prosper series: Where Gods Dwell, The Body in the Bokhara, Kiss Miss, Full Moon, and Calcutta Cabob. 

Kiss Miss is a fascinating mystery and a great story. I was so impressed that I bought Where Gods Dwell, and I can’t wait to read it. If you like historical crime fiction written extremely well, this novel has just about everything that could be offered.