{"id":5107,"date":"2023-07-13T13:54:25","date_gmt":"2023-07-13T20:54:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=5107"},"modified":"2023-07-13T13:54:25","modified_gmt":"2023-07-13T20:54:25","slug":"allison-montclair-the-lady-from-burma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/allison-montclair-the-lady-from-burma\/","title":{"rendered":"Allison Montclair: The Lady from Burma"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Sparks & Bainbridge #5<\/strong><\/p>\n

July has been almost too delicious for words.\u00a0 First was the long awaited return of Sujata Massey\u2019s Perveen Mistry series; and then, just as eagerly anticipated (by me) is the new book in Allison Montclair\u2019s Sparks and Bainbridge series. Five books in, fans of the series know that Gwen Bainbridge and Iris Sparks run The Right Sort marriage bureau in postwar London.\u00a0 Iris did undercover work during the war; Gwen lost her husband, fell apart, and was literally declared a lunatic by her husband\u2019s family, who have custody of her child and have put the portion of the family company she\u2019s inherited from her husband under the control of the lunacy court.\u00a0 It looks like, in book five, that the form of purdah Gwen finds herself in is about to be lifted. Her lawyer is hopeful and so is Gwen.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, she and Iris have been approached by a woman from Burma (hence the title) who has waited out the war for her husband to return from the Burma jungles. When he comes home, however, she finds she has cancer, and she\u2019s at The Right Sort to make sure he\u2019ll be looked after when she\u2019s gone.\u00a0 This has Gwen in tears and the practical Iris arranging financial details.\u00a0 Gwen is certain she\u2019s talked the woman out of suicide, but it\u2019s not long before the woman\u2019s body is discovered, an apparent suicide.\u00a0 This is a mystery novel, however, and it is far more likely, of course, to be murder.<\/p>\n

Montclair delivers on so many fronts.\u00a0 First of all there\u2019s a complex plot; there\u2019s a distinctive setting; there\u2019s an unusual occupation for the main characters; and finally, and perhaps most importantly, there are the characters themselves – believable, complicated human beings with opinions, emotions, intellect, curiosity \u2013 they are indelible.\u00a0 Iris and Gwen have different backgrounds, but they complement each other.\u00a0 While both have romances at different stages, the central relationship in the books is their friendship.<\/p>\n

In this book, Gwen is having a hard time awaiting her hearing.\u00a0 If it goes well, she will again have full custody of her son, and will be able to set up her own household.\u00a0 The man appointed to her case by the lunacy court seems to have a vague hostility toward her, which naturally makes her nervous.\u00a0 This arc has run through all the books to date and it\u2019s brought to an excellent conclusion in this novel.\u00a0 I won\u2019t spoil it and give away which way the courts decide.<\/p>\n

Surrounding it is a complex plot involving beetles, finances, and thwarted and uncertain romances for both Iris and Gwen.\u00a0 The different threads of the novel \u2013 beginning at the Right Sort with the lady from Burma of the title \u2013 all tie up but it\u2019s far from clear how they are related.\u00a0 Oh, did I mention, these books are also page turners?\u00a0 This is the kind of read where you\u2019re super irritated to be interrupted for any reason.\u00a0 This is one of the strongest entries in this wonderful series, which is saying a lot.\u00a0 And stay tuned for the beetles. —\u00a0Robin Agnew<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sparks & Bainbridge #5 July has been almost too delicious for words.\u00a0 First was the long awaited return of Sujata Massey\u2019s Perveen Mistry series; and then, just as eagerly anticipated (by me) is the new book in Allison Montclair\u2019s Sparks and Bainbridge series. Five books in, fans of the series know that Gwen Bainbridge and … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[256,1279,575,1277,1278,1276,1280,1200],"class_list":["post-5107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-allison-montclair","tag-entomology","tag-marriage-bureau","tag-minotaur","tag-postwar-london","tag-robin-agnew","tag-sparks-bainbridge","tag-the-lady-from-burma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5107"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5109,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5107\/revisions\/5109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}