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Books about Empire-era India make up a popular sub-genre of historic fiction. Most are quite lightweight romances with rather obvious plots. Cochin Fall is such a book. It's a light, fluffy distraction but not something you should expect to remember a couple of weeks later.

Everything that happens is well sign-posted in advance. Everything is very obvious. Good looking young bucks, and conniving lower-class employees compete with solid but dependable gentleman for the hand of young Clara, back from school in England and ready to be married off for the most commercial advantage.

There are tons of these books set in the Himalaya and I had to keep reminding myself that this one was set in Kerala. Unfortunately, the lack of depth or insight about Kerala suggested that the setting was probably derived from a half-hour travel documentary. It's all Chinese fishing nets and rice barges. Local people are barely there in this story unless you want a tireless brown fellow with a string tied to his toe to pull the punka are a liveried footman to serve a Gimlet.