Sunday Telegraph, Sept 2, 2001
Well-plotted first novel... atmosphere of the Raj colourfully captured... unexpected twist at the end of an enjoyable read.
The Crime Bookseller, Sept 7 2001
This debut novel is set to bring the author into the big league... writing and accuracy of scene is astonishing.
Lesley Grant-Adamson Aug. 2001
A classy debut. The novel is a real treat: intelligent, intriguing and splendidly atmospheric.
Deadly Pleasures
A clever debut. A puzzling mystery that denads attention and keeps the pages turning briskly.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Book Description
The very first Joe Sandilands mystery from the prize winning Barbara Cleverly re-launched with a fantastic new cover treatment.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Product Description
India 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?
From the Author
This is the first in a series of Joe Sandilands novels. The second 'Ragtime In Simla' will be published next spring. The third 'Two Graves At Gor Khatri'is now finished and is set on the turbulent north west frontier with Afghanistan.
About the Author
Born in the north of England, Barbara Cleverly has spent her working life in Cambridge and Suffolk. After years of teaching she now lives with her second husband Peter Cleverly in a medieval house in a Suffolk village. She has one son and five step-children. The Last Kashmiri Rose is Barbara's first book which was inspired by a successful outline set to the Crime Writers' Association/Sunday Times Debut Dagger competition. A shortlisting eventually led to its writing in full. Barbara is currently working on a new Joe Sandilands murder mystery.
Excerpted from The Last Kashmiri Rose by Barbara Cleverly. Copyright © 2001. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter One.
The night before her sixth birthday Midge Prentice woke under her mosquito net and breathed the familiar smells of a hot Indian night. There was the smell of wet khas-khas mats hanging across the doors and windows to keep out the heat of early summer, sweet and musty; there was the smell of jasmine which grew over the bungalow; there was the base accompaniment inseparable from India of drains and of dung. But tonight there was something else.
The night before her sixth birthday Midge Prentice woke under her mosquito net and breathed the familiar smells of a hot Indian night. There was the smell of wet khas-khas mats hanging across the doors and windows to keep out the heat of early summer, sweet and musty; there was the smell of jasmine which grew over the bungalow; there was the base accompaniment inseparable from India of drains and of dung. But tonight there was something else.
