| Synopsis: |
The Last Kashmiri RoseIndia 1922. In Panikhat, 50 miles from Calcutta, the wives of officers in the Bengal Greys have been dying violently, one every year and each in March. All the deaths are bizarre and appear to be accidental. The only link between them is the bunch of small red roses that appear on the women's graves on the anniversary of their deaths. In order to help solve these mysterious deaths, the Governor of Bengal calls on the reluctant help of Joe Sandilands, Scotland Yard detective and war hero who happens to be on secondment to the Bengal police. Joe learns that the deaths are connected and that the series has not yet run its course. But who will be the recipient of the next Kashmiri rose? Is Joe hunting an Indian or European killer? And what is the reason behind the slaying of the officers' wives? With only days to go before the end of March can Joe uncover the murderer whose compulsions seem to be rooted deeply within the dark soul of India itself?Ragtime in Simla Simla 1922. The summer capital of the British Raj is fizzing with the energy of the jazz age. Commander Joe Sandilands is looking forward to spending a month here in the cool of the Himalayan hills as the guest of Sir George Jardine, the Governor of Bengal. When Joe's travelling companion, a Russian opera singer, is shot dead at his side in the back of the Governor's car on the road up to Simla, he finds himself plunged into a murder investigation. Confronted by the mystery of an identical unsolved killing a year before, Joe realizes that Sir George's hospitality comes at a price. Behind the sparkling facade of social life in Simla he finds a trail of murder, vice and blackmail. Someone in this close-knit community has a secret and the nearer Joe comes to uncovering it, the nearer he comes to his own death.The Damascened Blade The North-West Frontier, 1910. The screams of a wounded British officer abandoned at the bottom of a dark ravine are heard by a young Scottish subaltern. Ignoring the command to retreat back to base the Highlander sets out alone, with dagger in hand, to rescue his fellow officer from the Pathan tribesmen who are slowly torturing him to death. Over a dozen years later the backwash of this tragedy threatens to engulf Joe Sandilands. On secondment from Scotland Yard, Joe is spending a fortnight with his old army friend, James Lindsay, commander of the front line fort at Gor Khatri. An uneasy peace is in operation with the Afghans but into this already-delicate situation is injected an ill-assorted group of visitors to the fort. After a skirmish which results in the death of a Pathan prince and the taking of hostages, Joe and his companion James are given seven days in which to identify, arrest and execute the killer before the frontier erupts into war. Drawing on all his courage and detective skills Joe must find out who the murderer is before more bloody deaths occur, the legacy of a bitter feud with its roots hidden deep in the past.The Palace Tiger India, 1922. In this, the fourth in the acclaimed Joe Sandilands series, Scotland Yard detective Joe arrives in the princely state of Ranipur at the request of the Maharajah, an old ally of the British. The Maharajah is dying, and the succession is unclear. The death of his first son, while panther-wrestling, is suspicious, but as Joe begins to investigate a second son dies dramatically right before his eyes. With only the youngest, aged 12, now left to succeed, can Joe ensure his survival? In the glittering and luxurious setting of the court with its array of powerful, scheming characters, Joe must find his way through the maze of intrigue to trap, at last, the palace tiger. |