Jane Wunderly #6
Homicide in the Indian Hills is the sixth full-length book in Erica Ruth Neubauer’s Jane Wunderly series set in various locations around the world in the 1920s. Jane, an American war widow, has recently married the enigmatic Englishman Redvers, and this represents their first case as a married couple. The couple met in Egypt, in the first book in the series, Murder at the Mena House, and so far their adventures have taken them to Istanbul, a Scottish island, a transatlantic voyage on the sister ship of the Titanic, and several other places. Redvers carries out secret operations for the Crown, and usually these lead to a murder which Jane and Redvers solve.
This book takes the couple to Ootacamund, usually referred to as Ooty, a resort town in the hills of India. Redvers’ assignment is to smooth the way for a commission which is being sent to enforce British colonial rule in India at a time when the movement for Indian independence is gaining strength. Redvers is in a dilemma, because this is the first assignment with which he disagrees. He and Jane support Indian independence, and Redvers meets in secret with rebel leaders.
Ooty is a beautiful place, and I loved Neubauer’s descriptions of the town and the nearby forest and tea plantation, where Jane often goes on various tasks during her investigation, despite her dislike of tea (even though she develops a taste for Indian chai). She usually goes there on foot, since she hates the thought of people carrying her in a palanquin or pulling her in a carriage, as is the local custom. But the town is also full of dangers, including political and personal intrigues, not to mention a hungry tiger in the forest.
At a welcome dinner at the governor’s mansion, at which, to Jane’s disgust, traditional British rather than Indian food is served, the governor’s wife, Lady Goshen, unexpectedly arrives in India, which creates a very awkward situation because Governor Goshen, an ambitious man who wants to be viceroy of India, has kept a string of Indian mistresses. His current mistress, Savithri, is living at the tea plantation. Lady Goshen, however, is surprisingly accepting of the situation. Jane takes a quick dislike to Lady Goshen because she is appalled by the governor’s wife’s racist attitudes toward Indian people.
Jane soon makes friends with Gretchen, an Englishwoman who supports Indian independence and who was once a member of the Indian National Congress. She has ties to the rebels with whom Redvers is meeting. One day as Jane walks to the tea plantation, she sees Gretchen talking to Savithri, who seems very upset about something. Not long afterwards, Gretchen’s dead body is found, an apparent victim of a tiger attack.
Redvers is called in to view the body, and he discovers that Gretchen was shot, and the murder was, very clumsily, made to look like a tiger attack. Then, at the funeral, one of the coffin bearers is tripped, the coffin falls open, and Gretchen’s body is not inside. Who killed Gretchen and stole her body? Or was it the same person? Or, as one of the rebel leaders believes, is Gretchen still alive and was someone else killed instead? This last question is answered quickly, because Jane and Redvers have seen the body before it was stolen and know it cannot be anyone else.
The police are corrupt, and refuse to investigate because the inspector was paid off to say the death was a tiger attack. He also received an anonymous note, typed on a typewriter with a dropped letter “e,” ordering him not to investigate Gretchen’s death. So Jane and Redvers conduct their own investigation. In the course of the investigation, several other people, including Redvers, receive threatening notes, all typed on the same typewriter. The note Redvers gets threatens his career as a Crown agent, and so Jane experiences a great deal of anxiety, because Redvers has not been trained to have any other career.
Jane and Redvers find that the typewriter on which the anonymous notes were written belongs to the governor’s secretary, Kandiyar, who has his own political ambitions. When Jane and Redvers confront him, Kandiyar denies knowing about the notes, and he does not know that Gretchen’s death was anything but a tiger attack. It seems to Jane and Redvers that someone is trying to frame Kandiyar for the murder. Soon after this conversation, Kandiyar is found dead, and it appears he committed suicide, but of course Jane and Redvers don’t believe it.
So now Jane and Redvers have two murders to solve, and many suspects, none of whom, however, appears to have a strong motive for either death. Gretchen was well-liked, except by the governor’s wife, who called her a busybody, and Kandiyar seemed harmless enough. He had ambitions, but no real enemies, as far as anyone can tell. Jane discovers that Gretchen, as a young woman, had an affair with an Indian prince, who shows up at the private funeral when her body is eventually found and buried. But the affair was long in the past, even though the prince still has feelings for Gretchen, and seems to have nothing to do with the murder.
Various political factions come into play. Not only is there a conflict between the colonial government and the rebels, but there are two rival Indian politicians on the local council. One, the senior of the two, once supported independence, but has changed his mind and now favors the colonial government. The other is definitely a supporter of independence, but Jane wonders if that is his sincere belief, or if he is acting out of personal ambition. Jane realizes the two murders somehow fit into this web of intrigues. But how, and what is the motive? She must discover the answer, or find herself the next victim.
This is a wonderful book, and a fascinating puzzle which I did not figure out until the very end. I loved the setting in India, and I especially enjoyed the parts where Jane discovers Indian cuisine, which she much prefers to the British food served at the governor’s mansion. It gave me a taste for Indian food. Neubauer really makes you feel you are there in Ooty with Jane and Redvers. Her sense of location is one of the strengths of the series.
I am also happy to say that the series has not gone downhill now that Jane and Redvers are married. That has been a problem with some other series after the leading couple gets married. The romantic banter between the two is still very much present, and having recently reread Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters, I’d say it’s reminiscent of Amelia and Emerson. I highly recommend the series, especially the first book, which is set in Egypt, to fans of Elizabeth Peters, and also to fans of Tasha Alexander and Dianne Freeman, whose series also feature a bantering couple and do not lose the romantic suspense after the leading couples get married. I also recommend this particular book to fans of Sujata Massey and Harini Nagendra, authors of series set in 1920s India.
Also, I would like to mention the Christmas novella, Murder Under the Mistletoe, which is included at the end of this book, at least in my advance reader’s edition. I hope it is part of the published book as well. I first read it when it was originally published as an ebook. It takes place before Jane and Redvers get married, between Books #4 and #5. Jane goes to spend Christmas at Redvers’ family estate and meets his father and aunts. She and Redvers are surprised to learn that his father is about to be remarried, to a woman whose previous husbands all died suspiciously. When a guest is murdered at the Christmas party, this woman becomes the prime suspect. This is a delightful novella, and I hope we meet Redvers’ aunts again in the future. I am looking forward to seeing where Jane and Redvers will go next in their adventures. — Vicki Kondelik