Death in Kashmir in Retro Reads

From the Bookshelf of Retro Reads…

Death in Kashmir

M.M. Kaye

Start date: April 5, 2025

Finish date: May 4, 2025

Discussion: M.M. Kaye - Fiction

Discussion leader: Carol She's So Novel戋侁

Why we're reading this: I've just acquired a copy of this title & decided to lead a group read!…more
[close] I've just acquired a copy of this title & decided to lead a group read!

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 41 topics — 1,409 comments total

M.M. Kaye - Fiction

* Trade Wind Background Information
By Hana , Hana is In Absentia · 31 posts · 57 views

last updated Dec 22, 2014 02:37PM

Death in Kashmir Group Read spoilers thread Apr 25
By Carol She's S鈥� , She's a mod, yeah, yeah, yeah! · 19 posts · 16 views

last updated Apr 15, 2025 01:17PM

showing 4 of 4 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Jun 01, 2015 Tadiana 鉁㎞ight Owl鈽� rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: i-own, india, suspense, mystery, historical-fiction

This was a fun, old-fashioned whodunnit, complete with exotic location, intrepid heroine and steely-eyed hero. And now I really want to visit Kashmir.

description

Gulmarg ski resort

They fanned out on the crest of Slalom Hill and each took their own line, swooping down over the crisp shimmering surface like a flight of swallows, dipping, swaying, turning in a swish of flung crystals, and leaving behind them clear curving tracks on the sparkling snow.

Dal Lake

As the heart-shaped paddles rose and fell in unison,

...more

76 likes · Like · see review

May 26, 2012 mark monday rated it liked it

Shelves: murdertime, into-the-past, romantica, to-die-for

3 Things about Death in Kashmir:

(1) beautiful opening chapter! wonderfully suspenseful and eerie. a moonlit place in a foreign land full of empty spaces. briskly evocative of an off-kilter period, a time and place that is fading away and being changed into something new.

(2) that time and place is 1947 Kashmir, as the British raj is preparing to get up & go. for a lightweight mystery, it is impressive that Kaye does justice to such a murkily complex period of time. the reason i picked this one up ...more

39 likes · Like · see review

Jun 16, 2009 Hannah rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mysteries, re-read, 2022-reads, 2011-reads, 2016-reads, favorites

My very favorite of M.M. Kaye's 6 " Death in... " murder mysteries, and quite possibly my favorite whodunit of all time. While her mysteries haven't the same scope and reach of her 3 masterpieces (The Far Pavillions, Shadow of the Moon and Trade Wind), they are nonetheless well researched, beautifully described, and endowed with snippets of Kaye's own experiences in the countries that she lived in during her childhood and/or her married life.

This outing takes the reader to Kashmir, 1947. Briti ...more

15 likes · Like · see review

Jan 15, 2017 Misfit rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-mystery, india

This was a very well put together mystery with the added bonus of an exotic setting as we're used to getting from MM Kaye. Beginning at the ski trip where two women die under mysterious circumstances that end up with a heroine involved all kinds of mystery and intrigue. Added bonus for the author's notes and how she included a tiny mention of herself while her family was living in Kashmir. ...more

10 likes · Like · see review

Jan 17, 2016 Christine PNW rated it really liked it

Shelves: vintage-women

I read M.M. Kaye when I was in my teens, first picking up The Far Pavilions, and then stumbling on these mysteries later. I can't remember which of the mysteries I read - perhaps all of them, perhaps only a few, but it has been long enough that they are basically new to me. I had actually been wanting to pick these up, and when I saw that Minotaur Books had finally released a kindle edition on December 1, 2015, I was delighted.

I love the mystery genre, especially the golden age mysteries by Chr ...more

8 likes · Like · see review

Mar 06, 2025 Susan in NC rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, library-book, tbr-retro

4.5 stars - I鈥檝e read and enjoyed a few of M.M. Kaye鈥檚 suspense mysteries (thrillers?), but I think this is my favorite. Her lyrical descriptions of the lush, gorgeous Kashmir scenery capture her deep feelings for the area (she spent her early years in Raj India), and sent me off down the Google rabbit hole, drooling over the stunning landscape of the region.

I鈥檝e read nonfiction and fictional accounts of the Raj period, and the tumultuous time after it, when Pakistan split off from India. Kaye 4.5 stars - I鈥檝e read and enjoyed a few of M.M. Kaye鈥檚 suspense mysteries (thrillers?), but I think this is my favorite. Her lyrical descriptions of the lush, gorgeous Kashmir scenery capture her deep feelings for the area (she spent her early years in Raj India), and sent me off down the Google rabbit hole, drooling over the stunning landscape of the region.

I鈥檝e read nonfiction and fictional accounts of the Raj period, and the tumultuous time after it, when Pakistan split off from India. Kaye does an admirable job of ratcheting up the tension and menace; there was a lot at stake, and in the post-WWII period, Cold War tensions were heating up.

That part of this thriller seemed accurate and scary, and kept me turning the pages. There was also a sentimental portrayal of a way of life coming to an end, as many of the British converged on Kashmir for one last holiday season of skiing or lolling on a houseboat on the stunning lake. There was also a healthy dose of humor as young Sarah Parrish, our intrepid heroine ( I like that she wasn鈥檛 a drip), skis, dances, shops, and socializes with her friends.

Kaye gives us some intriguing characters, who provide humor and snark, even a bit of romance, but also red herrings, as a few of them seemed as if they could be the criminal mastermind who has drawn the unwilling Sarah into their evil web鈥�

The book opens on a last ski trip, when a woman and her niece, both great skiers, die in seeming accidents. Sarah鈥檚 not so sure, as the niece was clearly scared of something and shared some explosive but vague fears with Sarah. From then on, I was caught up until it dragged a bit - descriptions of scenery and life on the houseboats among the vacationing British were still entertaining, but I wanted to find out if I was right in my suspicions of the criminal mastermind!

I simply sped up the Audible and chugged along until the exciting, but rather obvious 鈥渦nexpected baddy reveals all to trembling, shocked heroine鈥� scene. Oh, what the heck, it was a good reveal, and well done! The Audible is competently narrated by an actress with a lovely voice, but rather monotonous tone; some words were slaughtered in pronunciation, but her voice seemed appropriate to the setting of the book. I used a credit for it, but otherwise wouldn鈥檛 recommend you listen unless you only do audiobooks; I didn鈥檛 hate it, but her flat affect really doesn鈥檛 add a lot to the story.

Good fun, lovely descriptive writing of beautiful, exotic locales, and a healthy dose of menace and mystery, with none of the gore - just the ticket for the last few cold, blustery, rainy March days! ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Apr 14, 2017 Carolien rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2017, english-mystery

This book originally put Kashmir on my bucket list. Kaye is an excellent writer and this book is a solid mystery with some real moments of terror. It also recalls a forgotten period in history namely the last days of the British Raj.

5 likes · Like · see review

May 01, 2017 Katy rated it liked it

A very nicely done old fashioned mystery novel. Kept me guessing until the end, and M.M. Kaye does exotic locations like few others!

5 likes · Like · see review

Jan 22, 2022 Jenn Estepp rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: comfort-food, kindling, sleuths-and-gumshoes, historically-speaking, pandemic-and-aftermath

So glad I finally took a chance on Kaye. Reminds me a bit of both Mary Stewart and Helen Macinnes, with a smart but naive young protagonists in a foreign location who gets caught up in all sorts of international intrigue and espionage. Kashmir is a setting I know virtually nothing about and the historical moment in which it takes place - just before Partition - were quite fascinating, although it's obviously from the perspective of the British. I sort of had an idea of where things were going, b ...more

1 like · Like · see review