The Crows of Agra by Sharath Komarraju

"The Crows of Agra" by Sharath Komarraju. This book is published by Amazing Reads in 2015 and has 281 pages. This is a Birbal mystery.

Bairam Khan, guardian of Akbar and regent of Mughal empire, is ordered by Akbar to relinquish his responsibilities and proceed to Mecca. The night before his departure he is murdered. In an unrelated incident, Mahesh Das, who miraculously arrives on time to save Akbar's life and subsequently gains his trust, is assigned the task of finding who and why of murder.

Who is Mahesh Das? What is his secret? Why does Akbar entertain him? Who killed Bairam Khan? Can Mahesh Das find the killer? Whodunit?

Story is set in 1562 AD. The characterization is good. Ruqaiya Begum - Akbar's wife, Shamsuddin Khan - Bairam's friend and competitor, Maham Anga - Akbar's wet nurse and one he considers mother, Adham Khan - Son of Maham Anga, Gulbadan Begum - Akbar's aunt and Salima - Bairam's young wife and Akbar's friend are the main players in addition to Akbar and Mahesh Das.

The title has a reference to Akbar's famous question to Birbal 'How many Crows are there in Agra?'. Here the crows are the suspected individuals. Birbal has to find murderers from the crowd of Agra.

It's a good mystery that keeps you interested. The investigation and deduction take their time and keep the reader guessing. This is a mystery with a limited number of suspects and an amateure detective who's future employment is dependent on him finding the murderer.

It's a murder mystery with historical flavour. Historical characters and time period is used to provide a 'change' in regular murder mystery. It's a welcome change. The characters are real, the story is not. Bairam Khan was murdered, but not in palace. He was murdered by another person, not the one in this book. Birbal's background and agree is also changed. However it's a good read.

A good change. Recommend reading.