The Secret Keeper of Jaipur

LoveReading Says

Having written advertising commercials and marketing copy for decades before trying fiction, Alka Joshi launched her fiction career with the stellar debut The Henna Artist and instantly became a phenomenon. 

Much admired by Reese Witherspoon, it became a bestseller for its multi-sensory depiction of superstition, class and tradition in 1950’s Indian society and introduced readers to a superb cast of credible and highly engaging characters.

Joshi’s latest, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur shows that the author has had no ‘difficult second novel’ issues as from page one we are immersed in Joshi’s trademark sense of place and launched straight into a tale of disaster and deception.

A sequel to her debut that works very well indeed as a stand-alone novel, Joshi seamlessly weaves some of the characters we first met in The Henna Artist with new cast members that are so well drawn we can feel their hopes, dreams and fears, and there are plenty of all,  in every chapter.

What Joshi does so well is to conjure a strong sense of setting with her adept use of the sights, sounds and smells of the locations she sets her story in. If ever a book had ‘scratch and sniff’ potential this is it. 

In her interview with LoveReading LitFest, Joshi was asked how she writes and she explained that she conjures chapters visually, like a film director, and then transcribes what she has ‘seen’ onto the page. 

For a fully immersive, take-you-to-another-place read, Jaipur and Shimla in the hands of Alka Joshi is a must.

Paul Blezard

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