A crackling new Lalli mystery | Review of ‘The Kala Ghoda Affair’ by Kalpana Swaminathan

Retired policewoman Lalli tackles a COVID-19 quarantine, a missing sapphire, and a web of mysteries in Mumbai in Kalpana Swaminathan’s latest The Kala Ghoda Affair

When we last met retired policewoman Lalli in Kalpana Swaminathan’s Raagam Taanam Pallavi, she was recovering from an illness. In the latest, The Kala Ghoda Affair, she is in quarantine, having been infected with COVID-19. Not just that. Her usual sidekicks — Inspector Shukla, Savio, Dr. Q and Sita — are also not in a position to be distracted; each one dealing with his or her own issues.

But mysteries don’t wait for anyone and neither does Ramona — niece of Lalli’s friend Hilla — want to wait. Her parents do not approve of her engagement to her boyfriend, Madan, because of “the family scandal… we’re responsible for the disappearance of the Kala Ghoda”. Not the South Mumbai neighbourhood that takes its name from the statue of a black horse but a sapphire that disappeared 125 years ago.

From here, the reader embarks on a rollicking journey through Mumbai’s past and present. The city is as much a character as any of the people in the book. Sita, who narrates the story, offers pithy and keen comments on the happenings and the way the city has changed. The chapter set in Watson’s Hotel is a case in point. In just three paragraphs, Swaminathan, through Sita, gives us an idea of the building’s history.

Entangled with the larger mystery is Sita’s relationship with Savio and his involvement with Mala, a former girlfriend who vanished five years ago and reappears in his life suddenly. How is Mala connected to the Kala Ghoda mystery? What of Madan, the behavioural anthropologist and Ramona’s boyfriend? A descendant of the man suspected to have stolen the jewel, does he know more than he is letting on? Then there is Jean Claude, a retired French police officer, following the trail of the cheval noir (black horse) laid by the legendary detective Edmund Locard more than 100 years ago.

All these strands come together in a neat denouement with Lalli being in crackling form, as she solves mysteries, advises Sita, climbs in through windows, and more. Here’s looking forward to the next Lalli adventure.

krithika.r@thehindu.co.in