The Towers of Silence (Paperback)

To give him credit, he didn't go into expansive detail in areas where he did in the second book, but it was so frustrating reading of exactly the same events as the second book, except from someone else's point of view. Very exasperating in fact. And unlike the second book, he somehow lost that fantastic ability to tell the story through the characters.

This book focuses on Barbie Batchelor, a retired missionary lady who lived with the Layton's Grandmother until her death. There is nothing wrong with telling the story through Barbie, except we already know most of it from the second book and somehow, Barbie's account doesn't add much to it - although we learn more about her!

When finally the book moves on into the future, it is well and truly 80% over and just glosses over the future, almost like its stampeding through Barbie's breakdown. There are hints of what to expect in the forth book, and given the precedence set in these three books, I suspect the beginning of the 4th book is going to be rehashing in expansive detail the material glossed over at the end of the 3rd book.

Quite honestly, I think this book could have been just about completely dumped from the quartet (maybe some of the better description replacing some of the duller descriptions in the 2nd book...), and we'd have been none the wiser!

In TOWERS at least two people appear visably "mad" -- Susan Layton and Barbie Bachelor. Others may be equally insane but these two defy established conventions and disrupt the equilibrium of those around them to the point they must be incarcerated.

Susan has been made a widow by the death of her new husband. She is pregnant at the beginning of the book and gives birth to Edward shortly after a terrible experience with another death. Afterward she suffers from postpartum depression.

Barbie is an ex-missionary--now retired--who has lived with Old Mrs. Mabel Layton for the past five years. Suddenly, Barbie finds herself without a home and with no relatives or close friends. She exhibits behavior deemed odd by the establishment. Barbie also has an uncanny way of pointing to the truth others refuse to acknowledge -- except Sarah Layton.

Once again, Sarah reacts very negatively to the obviously bizarre Ronald Merrick whom she visits in a Calcutta hospital in place of her sister who is too ill to travel. Sarah first met Ronald when he served as best man at Susan's wedding. He has since been wounded in a failed attempt to save Susan's husband who died in combat in Maylasia. Merrick provided his spin on the events at Mayapore to Sarah in DAY OF THE SCORPION. Sarah does not believe he tells the truth. In a conversation with Barbie Bachelor, Sarah exclaims regarding the Mayapore incident (first described in JEWEL IN THE CROWN but retold several times from many different perspectives), "Someone should be haunted by it." The four books of the Raj Quartet are haunted by the events in Mayapore in August 1942.

Barbie Bachelor becomes aware that Sarah has seen the Manners child in Srinigar. She feels the presence of the "unknown Indian." In the end she feels and sees too much. She writes to her friend Miss Jolley, "After many years of believing I knew what love is I now suspect I do not which means I do not know and have never known what God is either."

Philosophical, mystical, this book must be read in succession with the others in the series. You will never forget these people.