Book Review: A MYSTERY AT LILI VILLA

Title: A Mystery at Lili Villa

Author: Arathi Menon

Publisher: Yali Books

Pages: 172

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

Ten-year-old Tam from Bengaluru is spending her summer vacation with her cousins, 11-year-old Arj and 9-year-old Mira, in Elathoor, Kerala. Her aunt and uncle, Sheila Ammayi and Damodar Ammavan, are both doctors and away at their clinic throughout the day, giving the kids the opportunity to do their own thing.

One night, Tam sees mysterious footprints in the mud outside the window. The next morning, the family gets to know that Sheila’s Ammayi’s jewellery was stolen during the night. The police are called, and the size of the massive footprint measured. But the big clue is more hindrance than help. There are so many people with that shoe size. There’s the creepy driver Kodavis, the cook, Pitamma, Fan-fixer Faekku, Dumdum chechi, even Damodar Ammavan and sub-inspector, Thombu.

When it appears that the police investigation is going too slow, the kids decide to conduct their own investigation to find the culprit. They follow everyone on the suspect list to find out who might be the thief. As they get closer to the thief, they are faced with real danger, but they are unafraid. Will they successfully intercept the thief and recover the jewellery? Or will the thief get away?

 

As a child, I used to devour books by Enid Blyton. I loved the names and descriptions of the books, even though I couldn’t relate to any of them. There was no Internet then, no way to see what those interesting names meant. Here we have the family cook, Pitamma, treating the family, especially the kids, to the best of Kerala’s cuisine. It was nice to read a book where the food was familiar and comforting.

I liked the relationship between the cousins, the friendly banter and the raucous fun times they had. It reminded me of my own summer vacations.

The author has also thoughtfully provided an extensive glossary for the dishes mentioned in the book as also the Malayalam words and expressions strewn through.

The only error was that the kids fail to investigate one person, Veer Sagar. While Mira acknowledges the fact that they missed looking into that person’s alibi, it still feels like a mistake. Why not omit all references to that person, instead of saying, Oops, we forgot one suspect? Or else give him a sound alibi too.

 

The writing was sweet. Kids are sure to find it charming. 

 

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)