Published by Piatkus, 24 October 2013.
ISBN: 978-0-349-40058-7
ISBN: 978-0-349-40058-7
Kate Shackleton is summoned at an
early hour by an urgent telephone call, requesting her assistance in finding a
missing person. There is nothing strange in that. Since her husband went
Missing in Action towards the end of the First World War, Kate has made it her
business to hunt for missing people. In fact it has literally become her
business and she now works as a Private Investigator, assisted by Jim Sykes, a
former police officer, and by her housekeeper, the redoubtable Mrs Sugden.
However, this summons is different to Kate's usual cases. She is being employed
by the British Government to find an Indian Prince, who has disappeared whilst
hunting on the immense, Yorkshire estates of
the Duke of Devonshire, the Colonial Secretary. Even if Prince Narayan Halkwaer
has met with an unfortunate accident, the political repercussions could be
immense. It is swiftly obvious that the India Office, in the person of her
cousin, James, are not employing Kate simply because of her efficiency and
discretion but also because they hope she will be able to deal with the
prince's mistress, the beautiful, working class, Lydia Metcalfe, daughter of a
local, Yorkshire farmer, whom Narayan had met when she was a dancer at the
Folies Bergere. Lydia has
accompanied Narayan to Yorkshire, and, as she
is not accepted by the aristocratic families who would usually entertain the
prince, they are staying at a local hotel. Narayan already has a high-born
Indian wife and three children, but, in his religion, he can have more than one
wife and has announced his intention of marrying Lydia.
On the Duke's estate an
efficient search is already in progress, but the first body discovered is not
that of Narayan. It is that of a young groom who had accompanied Narayan on an
earlier hunt. On this previous occasion Narayan had shot a white doe and some
superstitious villagers feel that this is divine retribution.
When Kate finds Narayan,
lying in woodland, shot through the heart, she sees many signs that his body
has been placed there, after the search-party had moved on and that this is not
where he died. Kate was a nurse in the VAD in the Great War and she overcomes
her instinctive repulsion and photographs the body to aid the Coroner. However,
to her anger and frustration, it soon becomes clear that the Government is
determined to whitewash the whole affair and the verdict is brought in that
Narayan (a superb rider and an experienced huntsman) had been careless enough
to ride with his loaded rifle ready for use, and that his death was an
accident. Kate's photographs are ignored and the negatives removed, without her
permission, from the hotel safe. To make matters worse, Narayan's valet has destroyed
much of the evidence as part of the death rituals.
Furious at this cover-up
and with herself for having allowed it to happen, Kate, with the help of Jim
Sykes and Mrs Sugden, decides to discover the truth. She finds herself
experiencing understanding and sympathy for the two very different women in
Narayan's life: Lydia Metcalfe and Indira, Narayan's beautiful, cultured wife,
the mother of his three children, who commissions Kate to discover the truth
and to retrieve the famous dubte suraj ki charmak, the wonderful sunset
diamond, that disappeared around the time of Narayan's death. However, as Kate
unravels the tangled web of lies to discover the truth, she realises that far
more than the recovery of a diamond is at stake. Unless she can avert the
tragedy, another innocent life will be lost.
Kate Shackleton is a
wonderful heroine. Her quiet courage and determination to discover the truth
makes her very likeable, especially as this is tempered by her self-deprecating
sense of humour. There is a brilliant description of Kate, dressed in borrowed,
shabby clothes, having survived an ordeal by fire and water, entering the ducal
dining room:
'In my ill-fitting clothes, still wet from my wade in the Wharfe, I smelled
of river water, burning timber and thatch, and sodden tweed. My feet squelched.
Smiling inanely at several guests, including the Duke and Duchess of
Devonshire and Mr Chana, I plopped across to Sir Richard, muttering a general
“excuse me” to the assembled eaters.'
Kate is very much aware
of her 'chameleon' status. She is the adopted daughter of Lady Virginia, the
daughter of a duke, and her policeman husband,' but Kate's natural mother lives
in a Wakefield
slum, and it was there that Kate was born. Devoted to her adoptive family, Kate
is also in contact with her natural family, and this makes her sympathetic to
the conflicting viewpoints of Indira, who is certain of her rights and
entitlement as an Indian princess, and Lydia, who resents the way a few people,
by an accident of birth, can possess so much of the countryside and the people
who live there, including her family home.
The book is full of these
contrasts, with beautiful descriptions of the Yorkshire
countryside and exquisite pictures of the exotic interiors when the Indian
nobles bring carpets, cushions and hangings to embellish wherever they stay.
The book has excellent historical detail and dialogue, which sets the period
without slowing the action. I loved this book and would recommend it
wholeheartedly.
------
Reviewer: Carol Westron
Frances
Brody is a pseudonym of Frances
McNeil who lives in Leeds where she was born
and grew up. She worked in the USA
as a secretary in Washington DC
and New York.
Frances studied at Ruskin College,
Oxford and read
English Literature and History at York University.Starting her writing life in
radio, she has written scripts for television and theatre. Frances turned to crime for her first novel, Dying
in the Wool, set on the outskirts of Bradford, Yorkshire
in the 1920s. Four further books have followed
featuring Kate Shackleton,
http://www.francesbrody.com/
Carol Westron is a successful short story writer
and a Creative Writing teacher. She is
the moderator for the cosy/historical crime panel, The Deadly Dames. Her crime novels are set both in contemporary
and Victorian times. The Terminal
Velocity of Cats is the first in her Scene of Crimes novels, published July
2013.
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