***This review might have mild spoilers for The Henna Artist.***

The Secret Keeper of Jaipur takes place about ten years after the end of The Henna Artist. Lakshmi and Dr. J are married and running a medical clinic in Shimla. Malik has graduated from an elite boarding school and is in Jaipur interning at Samir’s construction company. The company has been contracted by the Palace to build a fancy cinema.

Malik has left Nimmi, a humble tribeswoman that he’s started to form a relationship with, behind in Shimla. One of the reasons Lakshmi sent Malik to Jaipur is to get him away from Nimmi – she doesn’t think Nimmi is good enough for him.

The cinema collapses on opening night, injuring, and even killing, some of the people in attendance. Malik doesn’t buy the official explanation for the collapse and decides to investigate himself.

In this book Laksmi is a supporting character but she’s still up in everyone’s business, just like she was in The Henna Artist. The focus is mostly on Malik and Nimmi. It’s more plot driven than The Henna Artist since we already know most of the characters. (Although this could be read as a stand-alone because anything you need to know from the first book to understand what’s going on is explained.)

I thought The Secret Keeper of Jaipur was just as good as The Henna Artist. The mystery of who was behind the cinema collapse was well-plotted. I’m looking forward to the final book in the trilogy, The Perfumist of Paris. ( )

Henna artist Lakshmi arranges for her protege, Malik, to intern at the Jaipur Palace. It’s the spring of 1969, and Lakshmi, now married to Dr. jay Kumar, directs the Healing Garden in Shirmla. Malik has finished his private school education. At twenty, he has just met a young widow with two small children when he leaves to apprentice at the Facilities Office of the Jaipur Royal Palace.
Malik finds little has changed. Power and money still move seamlessly among the wealthy class. When the balcony collapses, Malik suspects something caused it. ( )

Alka Joshi is masterful in drawing the reader into not only time but place. Her ease with character and setting make this a vibrant and enthralling look at how secrets grow for both those who’ve kept them as well as those who’ve secrets are kept. There’s something here for every reader; love, betrayal, mystery.

The second in her series of books, the Secret Keeper of Jaipur, keeps us following the lives characters from her first book, The Henna Artist. ( )

This sounded promising and I was excited to get it and read it, but then discovered it was book 2 after The Henna Artist and I was a little lost when I read it since I hadn't read the first book.
I could figure out enough of what was going on and enjoy it some, but it would have been better if I had read The Henna Artist and had more information and backstory to the characters and everything first. It talks about family and happiness and follows up on the characters from The Henna Artist.
I would recommend this especially if you've already read The Henna Artist. Thanks so much to NetGalley and Harlequin for letting me read and review this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. ( )

The second volume in this series was as engaging as the first. Set 12 years after the events of the first novel, Lakshmi is settled in Shimla, married to Dr Jay Kumar. Malik has been to an elite school courtesy of Samir Singh (who is nursing some kind of guilty conscience regarding Lakshmi and his role in imploding her world in Jaipur), but rather than settling down with some upper class girl, he becomes enamored of Nimmi, a tribeswoman from the hills. But, he agrees to go back to Jaipur to apprentice with Lakshmi's old friend Manu at the palace, learning the building trade. The novel is told in three voices: Lakshmi, Malik, and Nimmi. While Malik is in Jaipur, a terrible tragedy occurs, and he is suspicious of the circumstances. Manu is implicated, but Malik is convinced he is innocent, and the corruption lies further up the food chain. This is tricky business, however, involving all kinds of caste politics and the local royalty, so Malik and Lakshmi (who comes to Jaipur to help him sort it out) must tread carefully. Meanwhile Nimmi thinks Lakshmi is trying to keep Malik away from her, and she accidentally becomes involved in some nasty business herself. The narrative is smooth, the perspectives distinctive, the storylines believable, with some tension and intrigue but very little menace. Exactly the tone I enjoy, and I hope there will be more in this series. ( )