Blackstone and the Tiger by Sally Spencer

Genre: Historical Mystery

Setting: London, 1898

First Sentence: From the balcony, the Maharaja could see both the gardens which surrounded his palace and the town which lay beyond.

This novel is the second in Spencer's Blackstone series which currently runs to twelve books.

Sally Spencer is the pen name of Alan Rustage.

There has been a series of kidnappings in London.  Inspector Blackstone has been on the case.  What troubles him is that each successive kidnapping has gotten more complex and brutal.  Even the leaders of the London criminal gangs admit that they could not pull off such crimes.

And then, the son of a visiting Maharaja is kidnapped.

Who is committing these horrible crimes?

What is their motive?

Can Blackstone piece together the clues to discover the identity of the perpetrators?

And, more importantly, can he rescue the Maharaja's son?

This was a very interesting and enjoyable novel.  On the surface, there is a pleasant mystery to solve. On a deeper level, we see how racist some British people of that time were.

FYI - In this novel the author has made copious use of the "n-word" to describe persons of color from India.  In my opinion, the author is trying to demonstrate the low opinion many British citizens had for the people of that region.  I do not think the author intended to portray his own personal feelings.

This was another great novel by Sally Spencer.  I like his style of writing.  It is very readable.  I also like the way he keeps the chapters short.

For me this was a very enjoyable read.