The author of these books very kindly sent me a copy of the current two titles (more to come I gather), India Black and India Black and the Widow of Windsor. She also very kindly signed them with a personal message and I was simply delighted to receive them. I read both of them in a few days and loved every single word. Terrific fun and written in an engaging and witty style.
"My name is India Black. I am a whore. If those words make you blush, if your hand fluttered to your cheek.........then you should return this volume to the shelf, cast a cold glance at the proprietor as you leave and hasten home feeling proper and virtuous. You can go to Evensong tonight with a clear conscience"
Or, on the other hand you can read all about India's adventures. India is a Madam and runs a house in the red light district of London. One quiet Sunday afternoon as she is tallying the preceding night's receipts over a glass of whisky or a "pot of steaming Early Grey and some of the petrified horse droppings Mrs Drinkwater so charitably calls muffins" she is interrupted by Arabella Cloud, one of her newest employees and the favourite of Bowser, a regular Sunday afternoon customer. Bowser is a "stout, tweedy old cove with a blue veined nose who worked in the War office". What India does not know is that he has an attache case containing important papers showing just how weak and vulnerable is the state of the British army, and when India tries to get rid of the body, she finds the case has been stolen.
Enter, stage right, a handsome British spy called, inappropriately, French and finding her removing the deceased Bowser from her house, he blackmails her into recovering the missing documents. To her amazement she is taken to meet Disraeli: "My first thought is that my fame had preceded me and I'd been brought here to give Dizzy a gallop....the strain of managing an empire and jollying along that gloomy old bag Victoria might have got to him"
I smirked and chuckled and chortled all through this book as India and French infiltrate the Russian Embassy, then Claridges and then end up chasing a Russian spy with the missing papers to the English coast and then on a boat to France. Lots of dangers, derring do and simply packed with humour and wit. Loved every word.
I then turned with anticipation to India Black and the Widow of Windsor. Queen Victoria attends a seance in which the spirit of her Beloved Albert insists she spends Christmas at Balmoral, a deviation from her usual practice. The prime minister suspects this is all a put up plan so that Scottish nationalists can assassinate the Queen and he immediately dispatches French off to the Highlands taking India along with him as a housemaid, to see if they can find out what is going on.
Again, an absolute hoot. "I'd been dying to see John Brown....good looking if you liked a bit of rough, which apparently her Royal Majesty did"
A lot of India's time is spent wandering around the Castle in search of clues and incriminating evidence and trying to avoid the attentions of the Prince of Wales "He encircled my wrist with his hand and began dragging me towards the nearest room. Now, I had no doubt that I could make him stop this behaviour in an instant; all it required was a swift blow to the conkers and Bertie would be collapsed on the floor, gasping like a hooked trout. But what that might mean for my future, I could easily guess"
India is capable of dealing with almost every situation she finds herself in; she can even fence though she prefers the more direct approach as above, she is astute, quick thinking and intelligent and resourceful. Very little is told us about her background or her family, but it is clear to me at least, that she comes from a good family. We are nearly at the end of the book when we are given a tantalising hint and it comes from the Dowager Marchioness of Tullibardine, the snuff taking aristocrat who India maided at Balmoral, and who knew immediately that she was there under false pretences but who kept her counsel. Eccentric and a bit barking India and the Marchioness forged an odd friendship:
" Slowly the wheels of the train began to turn. I took a few steps gazing at the old lady's window.I felt a pricking in my eye and had to knuckle it away. Damned cinders were a nuisance in these stations...
She put her head through the window 'I forgot to tell ye that while you can't fix hair for tuppence, yer a damned brave girl........Ye are yer mother's daughter India. Ye remind me of her. She was a brave girl too"
And off the train goes leaving India standing on the platform wondering what the hell the marchioness knew about her mother. As I did too.
Hard to really get across just what joy these books are. I could quote pages and pages to you, so witty and funny are they, and the more you read, the funnier you find the narrative. It has a cumulative effect.
It seems from the author's biography that Carol was an attorney and corporate executive. Blimey, I bet she was huge fun in the office and rather glad she left it all behind to write these simply spiffing books. I am looking forward to the next in the series and trust that there will be many more to come.
These are books which will be staying on my shelves. Not passing them on to anyone.
