Ragtime in Simla [Mass Market Paperback]

The days of British rule in India are nearing their end in 1922, when this (dare I say)cleverly plotted mystery by Barbara Cleverly takes place.

To outward appearances, things are well in hand. Just a few thousand colonial troops, along with their Indian military staff and a handfull of top British government officials control a population of millions. But there is trouble ahead. Ghandi is busy raising the consiousness of the Indian population, and Afghanistan is poised to make trouble along the northern border.

Ms. Cleverly immediately plunges the reader into a world where British administrators, like Lieutenant Governor of Bengal Sir George Jardine may as well be Rajahs. They live in mansions with a staff of servants, and continue to dress as they did in England, all the while living in a climate like that of Houston.

The climate is the reason why the government repairs in summer to Simla, a mountain town which provides relief from the heat in the days before air conditioning. Scotland Yard Commander Joe Sandilands has been invited to visit Sir George for a vacation before heading back to England. Sir George sends a Packard limousine to pick Joe up at the railhead. This shows Joe packs some juice, since there are only four cars in Simla and Packard is the car of status in the years before the Second World War. Joe offers a ride to a famous Russian opera singer, who is murdered on the road to Simla.

It turns out that Sir George has an ulterior motive in inviting Joe to visit. The beautiful Alice Conyers is the CEO of a successful trading company. A few months before, her brother, believed to have been killed in the war, had resurfaced. He was on his way to Simla to take over the family company when he was murdered (in 1922 the male heir still inherited, I assume).

Is it a coincidence that Alice's brother and the opera singer were shot and killed at the same location? Is this a murder mystery? Anyway, Sir George asks Joe to investigate the murders, and Joe must be some kind of investigator, since he is a Scotland Yard Commander at a ridiculously early age. After all, the brilliant Adam Dalglish was middle-aged before he made Commander!

All of the characters were extremely well drawn. All but Joe have distinctive, even colorful personalities. Even Joe might have a personality hidden somewhere, but this is the day of the British stiff upper lip.

The plot is quite inventive, and features an early case of identity theft. The ending is fine, though the last ten pages or so draw leisurely to a close. But all in all, as the British say, "Well done!"

In 1919 Alice Conyers reaches Paris, the first leg of her trek to India to take over the reigns of the Imperial and Colonial Trading Corporation. Since the death of her brother Lionel during World War I, she inherited 51% of the stock while her second cousin who she plans to marry owns the rest. However, their train falls into a ravine killing almost all on board. Alice continues on to India where she makes her firm a success.

In 1922 Northern India, Scotland Yard Detective Joe Sandilands has finished up his tour of duty in India and is now the guest of Sir George Jardine, Lieutenant Governor of Bengal. He plans to spend a month in the guest cottage at Simla at the base of the Himalayas. Joe gives a lift to Russian opera singer Feador Korosovsky and witnesses his murder in the car driving them to Sir George. He reports the homicide and learns that Lionel, Alice brother died in the same spot with the same MO. Sir George asks Joe to help the authorities. He does finding all roads lead to Alice and that train wreck.

Barbara Cleverly has written a fantastic historical police procedural at a time when India learned it was the equal of their occupier sand wants freedom from British rule. The exotic locale enhances the mystery and romance by adding an aura of danger to the westerners. The protagonist is an enigma who readers will not like; while the antagonist receives empathy though the choices that person made were criminal. RAGTIME FOR SIMLA provides readers with a sense of time and place during the final hours before the sunset of the British Empire.

Harriet Klausner

If you didn't read the first book in the Joe Sandilands series, Kashmir Rose, don't worry. The book stands alone. If you did read Cleverly's first book, you'll like the second. You'll also notice some similarities.

Sandilands is on his way out of India when the governor invites him to a holiday in the Indian hill town called Simla. On his way up to the hills, he meets a Russian opera singer, who is shot before Joe's eyes. Not so coincidently, someone else was murdered in the same manner and in the same spot one year before. Joe investigates the mystery in which nothing is what it appears to be.

Cleverly's ability to capture the atmosphere of 1920's British India continues add a flavor to this book that you don't find in most mysteries. I spent some time in modern Shimla, so on a personal level, I enjoyed this book even more than the first.