I finally caught up with “Bhagavati” by Kara Dalkey. It’s the third book in the trilogy that begins with “Goa” and “Bijapur”, both of which I read in the 90’s before, coincidentally, moving to India. I just reread those the past couple of months before reading “Bhagavati” for the first time.

This book mainly follows the main character, Thomas Chinnery and the end of his journey in search of the “Rasa Mahadevi” or “The Blood of the Goddess”, a magical powder he previously encountered that is poison to the living, but has the power to restore life to the dead. Before this book he found out the source is a living goddess in the hidden city of Bhagavati, and encountered a few people who know the way there.

Also trying to get to the source of the Rasa Mahadevi are the Portuguese priest, Padre Gonscao, whose intention is to destroy it, and the commander of a small Mughal army, the Mirza Ali Akbarash, who’s been sent by his emperor to investigate and secure the source of it.

Of course, once in Bhagavati, the living goddess herself makes other plans for Thomas, plans he’s not interested in.

I enjoyed the book. It was a good adventure tale. Some parts of it seemed to drag on, and once all the characters arrived at the main location it got a bit chaotic keeping track of who was there and who came with who and who knew who else was there.

This one didn’t have any nice, sexy scenes like the previous book, which I was hoping for.

Overall, I enjoyed reading it, and feel I should look for some more Kara Dalkey books. ( )