Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Blood Caste by Shylashri Shankar Published by Canelo on July 24, 2025
Genres: Historical Mystery
Pages: 379
Format: ARC
Source: NetGalley
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Is Jack the Ripper at large on the streets of Victorian India?
Hyderabad, India, 1895. When three bodies are discovered with mutilations bearing an eerie resemblance to the Ripper’s Whitechapel victims, Chief Inspector Soobramania – known as Soob – is summoned to investigate.
Suspicion alights upon three powerful people: a Russian grand duke, an English earl visiting the city, and their friend, a Deccani noble, who is also the stepson of one of the victims.
Faced with the thorny imperial politics of accusing relatives of Queen Victoria, Soob must ally with his rival in the British Residency Police, Inspector Wilberforce, to hunt down the killer.
So begins a deadly game of cat and mouse played in the shadow of empire, where high birth protects foul deeds and where spilt blood counts for less than wealth.
India during the British Raj period was a bustling time and place- and ripe for murder. An experienced chief inspector of Hyderabad’s police discovers a murder victim who has been chillingly presented in a method that harkens back to Jack the Ripper. Forced to work with a British colonial policeman with a chip on his shoulder about the late Ripper case, ‘Soob’ relies on old friends and recently made contacts locally to hunt among British and Indians alike. Shylashri Shankar, writes a debut historical mystery that drew me in with historical background, setting, complex lead character, and cunning plot leaving me eager for what will come next.
Blood Caste is set in 1895 Hyderabad, India. Chief Inspector Soobramania is a veteran police inspector who worked with Scotland Yard to bring down Jack the Ripper. Soob followed up this brilliance with an equally important investigation in Hyderabad, when he successfully closed a case for the ruler of the Deccan state.
But, he is also a man living with the guilt that he placed his career first and was not there when his beloved wife’s illness grew worse and she died. Before leaving India, he was forced to give up his caste status as a Brahmin in good standing when he took the English post. Angry at the Brahmin priests for his wife being treated as an outcast in her last days by their friends and family, he refuses to do what’s needed to restore his status. Then, he realizes this decision will make his ward, his nephew, Naradja, outcast, too.
Into a situation where the British are seeking to add this Indian Deccan state to their governing authority and have a colonial presence outside the city of Hyderabad, where Indians of several cultures and religious backgrounds are mixing and even hired standing armies of mercenaries, Hyderabad is like a pot on the boil when Soob, while on a walk by the river, is the one to discover the first mutilated body.
Blood Caste is told from three perspectives with Chief Inspector Soobramania the predominant character. Wilberforce gets page time as does Soob’s best friend’s widow, Parsi lady doctor, Shiraz. I was pleased to get all three perspectives as the book unfolded.
Wilberforce takes a racial superiority point of view and also is determined to prove the Ripper is here in India which clears his old patrol partner back in London. To give him some credit, he won’t be influenced by his own superiors to pin it on an Indian as soon as possible nor is he one to only care about victims of status only.
Shiraz is Parsi of Persian extraction, she lost her husband and then miscarried their child while in London. Like Soob, she carries around her guilt in this. As one of the few women doctors and one who works in the hospital treating the women and children, thus seeing the results of abuse from their own husbands, she is incensed at the Muslim harems, those who keep slaves, and downtrodden women. She is determined to find the fiend who killed and mutilated her cousin and the other women and to find one mother’s missing son even if it means confronting a powerful Indian family.
There was a good assortment of suspects and motives. Once all the introductions and the early part of the plot were laid out, I put my finger on the solution even when there was a complication that I also spotted. Still, I never lost interest and enjoyed seeing Soob and the others find their way through the twists and turns to the end.
All in all, this was a culturally and historically-rich clever mystery and I hope there are more cases for Soob, Wilberforce, Shiraz and the others. Historical mystery fans should definitely take note of Blood Caste.
As a lifelong reader, it was inevitable that Sophia would discover book blogs and the joy of blog reviewing.Sophia is a prolific reader and audiobook listener which allows her to experience so many wonderful books, authors, and narrators.Few genres are outside her reading tastes, but her true love is fiction particularly history, mystery, sci-fi, and romance.Though, sorry, no horror or she will run like Shaggy and Scooby.
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What an interesting sounding book. Sounds like there is a lot going on with all these characters.
Yes! I loved that the main characters were from India and various cultures. It was fascinating as well as a cunning mystery.
A lot of history with the characters to delve into. A nice diverse mystery to sink your teeth into!
You said it, Rachel! I hope this becomes a long series.
India! Love it!
Oh yeah, totally worth it for the people and setting let alone the mystery.
I like historical mysteries and appreciate a main character that is not typical. Thanks for sharing.
Yes! I loved that this was Colonial Era India and the main character was Indian.
This definitely sounds like an interesting mystery. I like the possible Jack the Ripper aspect too. Great review!
Yes, it was a fab find. Hope you get the chance at it, Lisa!