‘Blood Caste’ by Shylashri Shankar

Published by Canelo Crime,
24 July 2025.
ISBN: 978-1-83598202-0 (HB)

The story is set in Hyderabad in 1895 where Acting Chief Inspector Soobramania is working as part of the British Viceroy’s Imperial Criminal Investigation Department, after he successfully completed a secret assignment to prevent an insurrection against the Nizam, the hereditary ruler of Hyderabad. Soob, as he is known to his friends, is a keen naturalist, and he is walking by the Musi River at dusk, hoping for sight of a rare frog when he spots a gunny sack in the water and, with great difficulty, he manages to pull it onto the riverbank. Inside the sack is the body of a murdered woman, and the mutilation of her body mimics the wounds of one of the victims of Jack the Ripper, the killer who had terrorised Whitechapel in London. However, Soob had been part of a secret team of officers who had hunted down the Ripper, and he knows that the killer had been shot dead, although this had been hushed up to save official embarrassment. Despite Soob’s conviction that the Ripper is dead, it is evident that there is a vicious serial killer at work. Within hours Soob has discovered two more murdered women. The reason that Soob and his men were carrying out such a rigorous search in the area was because Shiraz, the widow of Soob’s best friend, had come to him for help after her late husband’s cousin, Niloufer, failed to return home after a dinner party, and Shiraz fears that she had come to harm. Her concern is well founded, for Niloufer is one of the victims. Niloufer was recently married to a wealthy and important man who is a great deal older than she was, indeed, he has two sons who are older than their young stepmother, and the oldest stepson has made clear his resentment of the existence of his father’s new wife.

Many factors make investigating the murders a sensitive business, these include the political intricacies of two authorities ruling the area, both of whom are determined to assert their rights; the arrogance and entitlement of the high-born and powerful suspects; and the conflicting demands that religious requirements make of their adherents.

Soob works for the Nizam’s City Police, and he has to share the investigation with Inspector Wilberforce of the Residency Police. The relationship between the two investigating forces and the officers in charge of them is a complex and difficult one. There is pressure on both Soob and Wilberforce not to allow embarrassment to obtrude upon either the Nizam or Queen Victoria’s Government, with the clear knowledge that failure to shield the wealthy and powerful from unpleasantness could result in the ignominious dismissal for either or both of the investigating officers. Before his present posting, Wilberforce had been a police officer in Whitechapel, and he has a personal reason to wish to believe that the killer they are attempting to capture is the real Jack the Ripper, which means he resents Soob’s certainty that Jack the Ripper is dead. Wilberforce’s closed mind and resentment threaten to hamper the search for the truth, and the pressure on both officers grows more intense. However, the two men have more in common than either of them realises: both of them are in a sense outcasts. Wilberforce has left the British police force in disgrace, after his misjudged loyalty to a colleague caused harm; Soob is a religious outcast because he could not maintain the rigid demands of his religion whilst travelling to Britain, and he feels guilty about this because it brought grief to his family, especially his late wife. Wilberforce and Soob also share something more fundamental, a belief that the poor and low-born deserve justice and protection, and that being of high caste does not make a person exempt from behaving honourably or for suffering the consequences if they transgress. The violence escalates and the tension mounts, and Soob realises that he is facing a foe so ruthless that he will not hesitate to harm those that Soob holds dearest.

Blood Caste is an intriguing debut novel, with a complex plot, a fascinating historical setting, an engaging protagonist and several other interesting, multi-dimensional and likeable characters. This is an excellent read, which I thoroughly recommend.
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Reviewer:  Carol Westron

Shylashri Shankar is a crime fiction writer, food historian and social scientist. Her non-fiction book, Turmeric Nation, won the AutHer award for best non-fiction in 2021. When Shylashri is not writing, she cannot be found on social media. Try looking in the garden where she may be sketching plants or curled up on a couch with a mystery set in a remote island during a perfect storm. She lives in New Delhi with family.

Carol Westron is a Golden Age expert who has written many articles on the subject and given papers at several conferences. She is the author of several series: contemporary detective stories and police procedurals, comedy crime and Victorian Murder Mysteries. Her most recent publications are Paddling in the Dead Sea and Delivering Lazarus, books 2 and 3 of the Galmouth Mysteries, which began with The Fragility of Poppies. 

www.carolwestron.com