This is the fourth of Brian Stoddart's Le Fanu Series.
The British are slowly losing the grip on the subcontinent. The end of the colonial enterprise is in sight and the city on India’s east coast is teeming with intrigue.
Muslims are being murdered and communal tensions escalating as Superintendent Chris Le Fanu returns, reluctantly, to 1920s Madras from the Straits Settlements. He comes under fire, literally and figuratively, as more Muslims and policemen are killed by revolutionaries in clashes fomented by his boss, Inspector-General Arthur ‘The Jockey’ Jepson.
As the riots spread, Le Fanu’s trusted assistants – Mohammad Habibullah and Jackson Caldicott – disagree on both the origins and the handling of this new crisis. Le Fanu becomes further isolated as his only government allies, the Governor and the Chief Secretary, are being transferred away from Madras.
Even more pressure bears in on him when former housekeeper and lover, Ro McPhedran, falls critically ill in Hyderabad, and Jenlin Koh, his new love, is listed among those aboard a ship missing en route to India. Le Fanu’s entire professional and personal future is at risk as he confronts these challenges.
The Amazon link: https://www.bookgoodies.com/a/B07J6GJWB9
About the Author:
A Madras Miasma was the first in a series of books set in 1920s Madras in India, and featuring Superintendent Chris Le Fanu. The Pallampur Predicament was the second and A Straits Settlement has appeared in 2016 as the third.
A Straits Settlement was longlisted for the 2017 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best New Zealand Crime Novel.
A Greater God is the fourth in the Le Fanu series and appeared in 2018.
He has published extensively in non-fiction, too. A House in Damascus: Before the Fall recounts his experience of living in an old house in the Old City of Damascus immediately before the outbreak of the war in Syria. That memoir became an Amazon #1 in Middle East Travel, and won gold and silver medals at the 2012 e-Book Awards for Creative Non-Fiction and Travel respectively.
Brian Stoddart also works as an international higher education consultant on programs in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Syria and Jordan as well as in the UK and USA. This work follows a successful career as university researcher, teacher and senior executive which culminated in a term as Vice-Chancellor and President of La Trobe University in Australia where he is now an Emeritus Professor. That academic career took him all over the world including long periods in India, Malaysia, Canada, the Caribbean, China and Southeast Asia.
He also writes extensively for mainstream and new media as well as expert commentary for press, radio and television. Brian is also a cruise ship lecturer, specialising in international affairs and history.
In his spare time, he enjoys photography, reading (especially crime fiction),travel to new places, and listening to music, especially gypsy jazz