The Palace Tiger

The fourth volume in the Joe Sandilands series finds the Scotland Yard detective nearing the end of his temporary assignment in India. Sir George Jardine encourages Sandilands to accept an invitation to accompany a British Captain to the princely state of Ranipur, whose maharaja is a good friend of the Captain's. The British government has enjoyed a good relationship with the maharaja, but the maharaja is terminally ill and has yet to appoint the heir to the throne. The maharaja's eldest son recently died in an unfortunate accident, and the British government is concerned that a power struggle may be underway. Although the British, and therefore Sandilands, have no jurisdiction in Ranipur, Sir George hopes that Sandilands will make show more discreet inquiries into the state of things in Ranipur and report his findings to Sir George. In addition to making this unofficial investigation, Sandilands is also expected to participate in an orchestrated hunt for the man-eating tiger that has been terrorizing the villages of Ranipur.

I enjoyed the setting and characters in this novel, but I found the mystery aspect unsatisfying. We learn the "how" of the several crimes in the story. There are suspects and motives aplenty, but seemingly no clues pointing to any particular individual. We're told several times in the book that Indian police are as advanced as Scotland Yard in their use of forensic techniques such as fingerprint analysis and ballistics. However, neither Sandilands nor the local security force make use of any of these techniques. Sandilands uses reason to identify the perpetrator of each crime, but there were too few clues that would allow the reader to solve the mystery before Sandilands makes his final summation. Since Sandilands has no authority to arrest anyone in Ranipur, the author had to resort to other means to see that the perpetrators receive their just reward. This just didn't work for me. show less

Sandilands encounters what appears to be death by tiger as he visits Ranipur with Sir George. They go on a tiger hunt. However, all is not quite as it seems. There is a lot more than meets the eye with politics in British-occupied India and with other motivations. Sandilands, of course, is able to get to the heart of the matter. This is not my favorite installment of the series. At times, I had trouble focusing on the mystery. It simply was not as well written or captivating as earlier installments. Some characters are not as fully developed as they could be. It's not bad, but it just did not live up to the others.

A Scotland yard Commander temporarily seconded to British India is sent to an independent kingdom to join a hunting party targeting a man-killing tiger. But the politics of the realm are far more deadly, as the dying maharaja has delayed naming an heir. With one legitimate son dead, the other married to an American woman whose children would be unable to inherit, and the remaining son the twelve year old son of a concubine, the balance of power is in question. With no real power, Sandilands tries to detect murder, protect the living and balance the interests of the Empire.

second of her books that I have now read - realised in once she started describing the tiger hunt and I thought "I've read this scene before......." (In "Ragtime in Simla"). Not exactly the same, and I suppose that many of the tiger hunts in upper class Raj era India were all much the same, so poor comparisons cannot be necessarily drawn. It would be interesting to know if she presents a variation of this set piece in any of her other books where by I would then think she was being a little lazy or uninspired.[return][return]Anyway, the book itself is enjoyable as Commander Joe from Scotland Yard, having remained in India for longer than his planned 6 months, is sent out to investigate the deaths of two of the three sons of the show more Maharajah, who himself is dying and therefore his succession is in doubt. Some of the characters are lightly drawn, and tend to make short appearances, only to disappear again, making for quite a lightweight set of potential suspects when it comes to a head. show less

Intricate plot. A mix of politics, greed and duty pull the story along. Our hero is sent to untangle the mysteries surrounding the deaths of the two elder sons of a dying Raj. Written like that sounds boring and cliché. It's not. Cleverly at her most average is very good. India, in the 1920's, under British rule even if there is a thin veil of independence for some Indian states is shown with vivid colours and a love for the land that can't be mistaken.

The characters are a bit on the thin side, the villains are plenty and predictable, hence the 3 stars. But still it worth a read.

In the latest Joe Sandilands book, Edgar Troop (first featured in Ragtime in Simla) is invited by the Maharajah to find and kill a man-eating tiger in Ranipur. Joe tags along not realising it will lead to him investigating the suspicious deaths of heirs to the Ranipur throne. The first son died fighting a panther, the second died in a plane crash and the third son, a 12 year old who is favoured by the British Government may be next.

I have never read the other books in this series, but I received a copy of this one. I was a little apprehensive that I wouldn't be able to follow the storyline, as I missed out on three previous books. However, I think it is very easy to get into the story and one need not read the previous books to understand the gist of what is happening.

That said, I don't think this book is nearly as great as the previous reviewer thinks. None of the characters really stand out in my mind, possibly because there were so many that one can't really get to "know" any of them except Joe Sandilands. The plot was fine, but seemed to get bogged down at the end by a great many twists and turns that would have been more believable had clues about them been show more introduced earlier in the story.

Overall, it was an enjoyable read- setting this series in the waning days of the British Raj is an excellent move on Cleverly's part, and the mystery kept my interest, even if I wasn't thoroughly compelled by it.

I would read Cleverly's other books in the series, but she is not one of those authors that immediately goes to the top of my to-be-read pile when a new offering is released. Rather, she's one that I would read if nothing else on my shelf really grabbed my fancy because she is a light, not-too-complicated writer. show less