THE LAST KASHMIRI ROSE

After spending six months of 1922 in Calcutta advising the Bengal police, Commander Joe Sandiland of the Yard is anticipating a welcome return home when Acting Governor Sir George Jardine requests his help at the outpost in Panikhat. Jardine’s niece Nancy, the wife of Officer Andrew Drummond, is adamant that her best friend on the base, Peggy Somersham, was too phobic about blood to have committed suicide by slitting her wrists. Naurung, the Sikh assigned to assist Sandiland during his stay in Panikhat, agrees with Nancy, but Superintendent Bulstrode, of the local police station, demurs. Who’s right? Explaining clues with the aplomb of Sherlock Holmes, Sandiland soon ties Peggy’s death to those of four other officers’ wives. Over a 12-year span, each was killed in the month of March, each by her worst fear—of fire, snakes, drowning, heights. And their husbands have been disconsolate ever since. One widower’s daughter may be the next target, but Sandiland protects her until her would-be assailant confesses all, dies at Nancy’s hand, and leaves it to Naurung to cover up the scandal and protect the honor of the regiment.

Cleverly’s debut covers all the hallmarks of this bygone colonial era from the hot-and-cold running servants to the pink gins on the veranda to the class snobbery of the British and the superstitions of the locals. Her rudimentary plotting skills, however, in no way equal her sense of time and place.