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<\/a>But then, according to reviews (I had never read Uzma Jalaluddin until I was offered a review copy of this first mystery), her \u201cromance novels\u201d may not be what you\u2019re used to either. Her successful first novel, Ayesha at Last<\/em>, has been described as both a romantic comedy and a retelling of a Jane Austen novel, only involving Muslims living in Toronto, Canada.<\/p>\nDifferent, definitely.<\/p>\n
Detective Aunty<\/em> is also set among the desi, <\/em>or South Asian, community in Toronto.<\/p>\n The story has many of the elements of classic cozy mysteries \u2013 those where the emphasis is not on violence and the gory details of the murder, but rather on figuring out who killed the person and why. It even admiringly mentions Agatha Christie, the British \u201cQueen of Mystery.\u201d And Kausar Khan, the sleuth and heroine, has some key characteristics in common with one of Christie\u2019s most famous sleuths, Jane Marple.<\/p>\n Like Miss Marple, she\u2019s a woman alone, although Kausaur is a widow who was a traditional Muslim wife, rather than a \u201cspinster.\u201d Kausar is probably younger than Miss Marple, but, in her late 50s and widowed after having had no career or apparent life outside her home, she\u2019s equally easy for many people to overlook \u2013 or to describe somewhat condescendingly as \u201cDetective Aunty.\u201d<\/p>\n More important, Kausar shares Miss Marple\u2019s sharp intellect, curious mind and ability to ferret out information.<\/p>\n Those familiar elements, however, are woven into a world that will be unfamiliar to many readers. As we read, feeling sympathetic toward Kausar and her family, and increasingly interested in solving the mystery, we easily navigate a community that lives in a world where modern North American city life blends with Muslim foods, customs and attitudes.<\/p>\n Kausar has lived alone for nearly a year, since her considerably older husband died of pancreatic cancer. Long before that happened, the two of them had given up their life \u2013 and most of the contact with their family \u2013 in Toronto and moved to North Bay, a town about a four-hour drive distant in northeastern Ontario.<\/p>\n