Books I love, part 2

Another series of books that I really love is the Death In…  series by M.M. Kaye.  M.M. Kaye was born in India and was a British army wife who spent a good part of her life in exotic foreign places where her husband was stationed. She wrote mysteries or “whodunits” in some of the places she had lived.  The book are Death in Cyprus, Death in Zanzibar, Death in Kashmir, Death in the Andamans, Death in Berlin and Death in Kenya.  Goodreads gives them an order but they don’t need to be read in any particular order since they don’t have any characters or places in common.  I tracked down hardcover copies of every one of them some years ago through online used book stores and re-read them every couple of years or whenever I need a pick-me-up.

These books are a prime example of why I read. I will never be a British army wife and definitely not get to visit war torn Berlin, or Kashmir, or Kenya’s Rift Valley of those days, but for a few hours when I’m reading these books, I can be transported to a life vastly different from mine.  While they are works of fiction, I can get a glimpse of what life might have been like for women traveling in the 1940’s and 50’s or following a husband’s army regiment. Some of the language is a little old, as are the slang phrases, and can take some getting used to. I can see why not everybody would love them, but I do and would highly recommend them to anybody who likes historical fiction or cozy mysteries.