Book burble: "A gripping storyteller" --Telegraph of Calcutta

Beautiful widow Joan D'Silva is at Howrah Station, fleeing Calcutta with her 11-year-old son Errol. Also on the same train is Laxhimi, a notorious hijira prostitute: charismatic, sensual and powerful. They are both running away to Lucknow to escape danger, but soon their lives will become entangled in a web of corruption and blackmail.

Who is responsible for the poisoning at the factory? Is it the Workers Revolutionary Movement, the Children of God under the sway of the charismatic Swami Naik, or someone else entirely?

If only the police could help. But Detective Inspector Mallothra has based his investigative style on Mickey Spillane novels so it's down to Joan, her friends, and of course Errol, to unmask the perpetrator.

With a cast of colourful characters, this new novel by Glen Peters is inspired by his youth in the dwindling Anglo-Indian community. It is a witty, vivid tale of intrigue, immersed in the sights, sounds, smells and especially the tastes of 1960s India.

“Wonderfully evokes time and place, and gives a sense of the betrayal and loss that change can cause.” Books Quarterly
“A fascinating, first-hand insight into the Anglo-Indian community in post independence India. The detail given into every day life in this politically charged period of Indian history transforms this book into a compelling contribution to social history.” The Book Hound
“Peters leads his reader through 1960s Calcutta with a wonderful deftness. He brings alive time and place with colourful and sensual prose.” Kathryn Hopton, Wales Online

LUCKNOW RANSOM (Mrs D’Silva 2) – GLEN PETERS (2013) | ISBN: 9781910901229 | Publisher: Parthianbooks.com (this Ed 3/2/2016) (aka MRS D’SILVA’S DETECTIVE INSTINCTS AND THE LUCKNOW RANSOM)

Appears maybe only ever two produced, of the Mrs D’Silva’s Series:
MRS D’SILVA’S DETECTIVE INSTINCTS AND THE SHAITAN OF CALCUTTA by GLEN PETERS
(Copyright ?) Published: 02 June 2009
MRS D’SILVA’S DETECTIVE INSTINCTS AND THE LUCKNOW RANSOM by GLEN PETERS (2013)

I include these biographical notes on the author below because they offer much insight to the background of and reasons for creating this riveting fiction which is firmly embedded in a unique community that now in 2019 only memories can offer access to.

Author Biography I'm a writer of Anglo Indian fiction with an interest in making the world aware of a vanishing tribe of people that were born out of 200 years of British colonial engagement in India. Born in the UP [Uttar Pradesh or North Territory - see inset map] in India I grew up in a railway colony near Calcutta in the late 50s and 60s. Attending a Salesian school, Don Boscos, based in a slum, gave me a foundation in the sciences. Most of my life since has been spent in London after emigrating here with my parents. On graduating from University in London in the 70s I worked as an engineer with British Gas then joined Price Waterhouse till retirement. Over the last few years I have established a rewarding renewables business wanting my grandchildren to survive the harm we're doing to this planet.

My interest in writing began recently [in retirement?] after writing a story about an incident during my youth. Since then I've developed an interest in telling the story of the Anglo Indian community I grew up in, possibly the result of ageing and getting sentimental. The thriller genre has made my writing more accessible to a non-literary readership.

Setting my books in the 1960s gives me the opportunity to think back 50 years to my youth, a time of great change in India's fledgling democracy and a nation coming to terms with its newly gained freedom. At the same time most of the members of the Anglo Indian community were leaving for the English speaking commonwealth and their numbers dwindled.

I've always regarded myself occupying a space between two very different worlds and throughout my professional career felt equally at home in the East as I did in the West. I'm sure this helped me see opportunities more clearly and understand diverse points of view. [Adapted from Amazon]

It must be said that having read the authors biographical details above before I read the book I was looking forward to gaining rich insights to a vanished way of life, and so it was. Having said that I realise I was still expecting more of a fast-paced thriller element. Once I settled to the fact this was a slowly unfolding mystery and it is the journey that is key not the destination, I got back to focusing on the lushly patterned historical elements that make this so compelling. The Book Hound quote above says it well, as in fact do those other quotes mentioned.

It’s likely that a great many of my British contemporaries [OK us folks in their 60s] may recall in childhood meeting relatives and perhaps their friends who served in colonial administrative posts of some sort and as I read this familiar words reached out of the past to me and sounded in my ear. Extra thank you’s for the 3 page glossary! Accha = good or OK, Baba = a Bengali gentleman or clerk, Baksheesh = tip or bribe, Beta = term of endearment for a son, Choli = Blouse worn with the sari, Coolie = Porter, usually at stations, and my list could go on…

Jujups = soft-centred boiled sweets - I noted this on the glossary and recalled hearing similar as a child. It was strange to see that written down. It was only a later after sounding this word out in my head I realised I had heard this word used in the 1970s, when the children of families from the West Coast of Scotland, holidaying in my home town [in the North East of Scotland] talked about joob-joobs in sweetie shops.

I have a friend who in adulthood and in order to get people moving, still unconsciously resorts to saying “Jaldi, jaldi!” [Quickly, quickly!] after having had at least one year at primary school in India. Clearly I am inclined to go on more than somewhat so I’d beter stop.

Well, apart from saying rather than a fast-paced, action-thriller this is an immersion in Anglo-Indian life in of the 60s with issues of; corruption, ranging from every-day to life-threatening, political finessing, with mystery and suspense woven throughout. The plotting is revealed on more of a meander than a steadfast journey but for the introduction to a vanished community brought alive by colourful dialogue which places this in its particular niche so effectively I recommend it for its genuine plausibility and vibrant spirit!

Marking as reserved as I am quarrelling with myself over a number of ‘next destinations’ I could chose for this…

Must mention out of curiosity I held onto this for a weeks as I wanted attempt tracking down meanings to some of the words not included in the glossary. I found these answers to some questions I had;

“sarangee” (pg3) = is possibly a sarangi, a bowed, short-necked string instrument from India as well as Nepal and Pakistan which is used in Hindustani classical music, or could it be a player of such instrument?
“ball curry” (pg22) = I assume is simply meatball curry, though who knows…
“putaka” (pg30) = precise definition eluded me but I’m assuming from the context it is slang and means exceptionally attractive, i.e. a total knockout,
“loonghi” (pg174) = probably lungi or sarong,
“javans” (pg176) = ref to table goblets being laid out as neatly as infantrymen in a row, [origin Persian]
OK enough, stopping here, there were a few other words the definitions of which escaped me. But other tasks beckon.
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OK finally chose a destination for this so its labelled, wrapped and in the Royal Mail by Surface Post* to iwillrejoice in the USA. *[Surface post = by sea & slow.]
Enjoy!

Arrived safely in Florida! Thanks also for the bookmarks!