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The Death of a Sarus Crane: Sudha Gupta's Adventures in Detection
192 pages, Paperback
Published June 20, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 19, 2024
Excellent translation. A bit repetitive but still enjoyable.
July 19, 2024
Death of a Sarus Crane - A Review
CS Lakshmi or Ambai is an acclaimed Tamil feminist writer, at the age of 72 she came up with a crime fiction series with a mature female detective, Sudha Gupta who along with her mentor Vidyasagar Rawte and her friend in the Police, Govind Shelke works all sorts of cases. A few more important characters are her daughter Aruna, her husband Narendra Gupta, her associate Stella and her cook Chellemmal.
Death of a Sarus Crane is a collection of short mystery stories, set in Mumbai the book gives us snapshots into the life of Mumbaikars, their culture, food and much more. It’s less about the mystery and more about the people, their desires, pressures, the evil that resides within them as well as the love. Sudha Gupta, while drinking her cinnamon tea solves cases through human connections. The book also emphasises upon importance of community where everyone near her rallies and helps our heroine, it’s a lost art, this sense of kinship with people outside one’s small circle and makes one desirous of reaching out and have our own mentor, our own friends. My favourite of the short stories was Death of a Sarus Crane itself, it’s about a young child, all of 11 years who works for a rich family in Mumbai and her death. It’s a saddening tale, full of emotions and heart.
I will give this book a ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 and recommend it for people who are looking to read books that are quietly beautiful. Perhaps the one limiting thing in this book is the repetition, as the stories are lifted from different places, certain introductions had to be made again and again, I don’t know the alternative but it could have been avoided. I might have to pick up her other works to make more sense of the nonlinear narrative.
Thank you @speakingtiger for sending me my copy.
CS Lakshmi or Ambai is an acclaimed Tamil feminist writer, at the age of 72 she came up with a crime fiction series with a mature female detective, Sudha Gupta who along with her mentor Vidyasagar Rawte and her friend in the Police, Govind Shelke works all sorts of cases. A few more important characters are her daughter Aruna, her husband Narendra Gupta, her associate Stella and her cook Chellemmal.
Death of a Sarus Crane is a collection of short mystery stories, set in Mumbai the book gives us snapshots into the life of Mumbaikars, their culture, food and much more. It’s less about the mystery and more about the people, their desires, pressures, the evil that resides within them as well as the love. Sudha Gupta, while drinking her cinnamon tea solves cases through human connections. The book also emphasises upon importance of community where everyone near her rallies and helps our heroine, it’s a lost art, this sense of kinship with people outside one’s small circle and makes one desirous of reaching out and have our own mentor, our own friends. My favourite of the short stories was Death of a Sarus Crane itself, it’s about a young child, all of 11 years who works for a rich family in Mumbai and her death. It’s a saddening tale, full of emotions and heart.
I will give this book a ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 and recommend it for people who are looking to read books that are quietly beautiful. Perhaps the one limiting thing in this book is the repetition, as the stories are lifted from different places, certain introductions had to be made again and again, I don’t know the alternative but it could have been avoided. I might have to pick up her other works to make more sense of the nonlinear narrative.
Thank you @speakingtiger for sending me my copy.
December 1, 2024
I was not enamoured of this book.
Given to me as a gift, began it with eagerness, but disconnected quite soon. I feel like there is a lot more exposition than nuance and detail. Some of the plot lines are good, but there is barely any depth in characters or in story building, hence there is no payoff at the end of each detective story. I am unsure how much the translation affected the quality of story telling.
A definite no for me.
Given to me as a gift, began it with eagerness, but disconnected quite soon. I feel like there is a lot more exposition than nuance and detail. Some of the plot lines are good, but there is barely any depth in characters or in story building, hence there is no payoff at the end of each detective story. I am unsure how much the translation affected the quality of story telling.
A definite no for me.
July 18, 2025
I liked how the author weaved in many contemporary social issues into her stories and also the way she talks about the motives of the perpetrator without passing any moral judgement. However, overall something was off with all the stories. Many passages felt laboured (could be an issue with the translation too) and didn't ring true.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews