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Avery & Blake #1
The Strangler Vine
Calcutta 1837. The East India Company rules India - or most of it; and its most notorious and celebrated son, Xavier Mountstuart, has gone missing.
William Avery, a down-at-heel junior officer in the Company's army, is sent to find him, in the unlikely company of the enigmatic and uncouth Jeremiah Blake. A more mismatched duo couldn't be imagined, but they must bury their differences as they are caught up in a search that turns up too many unanswered questions and seems bound to end in failure.
What was it that so captivated Mountstuart about the Thugs, the murderous sect of Kali-worshippers who strangle innocent travellers by the roadside? Who is Jeremiah Blake and can he be trusted? And why is the whole enterprise shrouded in such secrecy?
In the dark heart of Company India, Avery will have to fight for his very life, and in defence of a truth he will wish he had never learned.
M. J. Carter is a former journalist and the author of two acclaimed works of non-fiction: Anthony Blunt: His Lives and The Three Emperors: Three Cousins, Three Empires and the Road to World War One.
William Avery, a down-at-heel junior officer in the Company's army, is sent to find him, in the unlikely company of the enigmatic and uncouth Jeremiah Blake. A more mismatched duo couldn't be imagined, but they must bury their differences as they are caught up in a search that turns up too many unanswered questions and seems bound to end in failure.
What was it that so captivated Mountstuart about the Thugs, the murderous sect of Kali-worshippers who strangle innocent travellers by the roadside? Who is Jeremiah Blake and can he be trusted? And why is the whole enterprise shrouded in such secrecy?
In the dark heart of Company India, Avery will have to fight for his very life, and in defence of a truth he will wish he had never learned.
M. J. Carter is a former journalist and the author of two acclaimed works of non-fiction: Anthony Blunt: His Lives and The Three Emperors: Three Cousins, Three Empires and the Road to World War One.
369 pages, Hardcover
First published January 30, 2014
278 people are currently reading
8150 people want to read
About the author
M.J. Carter
4 books304 followersM J Carter, biographer, historian and thriller writer, was educated at St. Paul's Girls' School and Exeter College, Oxford. She worked as a publisher and journalist before beginning research on her biography of Anthony Blunt in 1994. She lives in London with her husband and two sons. Anthony Blunt: His lives (2001), her first book, won the Royal Society of Literature Award and the Orwell Prize, and was shortlisted for many other prizes, including the Guardian First Book Award and the Whitbread Biography Award. In the US it was chosen by the New York Times Book Review as one of the seven best books of 2002. Her second book, The Three Emperors (US title, George, Nicholas and Wilhelm), was published in 2009 and was shortlisted for the LA Time Biography prize and the Hesse-Tiltman History prize. In 2014 her first thriller, The Strangler Vine, the first in a series set in the first years f Queen Victoria's reign, will be published. The second in the series, The Infidel Stain, is due for publication in January 2015.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 853 reviews
April 15, 2016
The Strangler Vine features two East India Company officers - Avery and Blake - on a mission to find a prominent, missing European author, Mountstuart, in India in 1837. More than that, it features India, over a 5-month period, twenty years prior to India's First War of Independence (or the Great Rebellion), which ultimately led to the dissolution of the East India Company. I enjoyed The Strangler Vine tremendously, but it's not for everyone.
First, if you're reading it for the mystery, you might be disappointed. There is one, and it's ultimately solved, tied up in a nice, neat bow; however, because Carter chooses to tell her story through the voice of Avery - young, naive, a company man, deplorer of Indians and their customs, and lover of books, including Mountstuart's - and the last man to figure out at every step of the journey what constitutes a clue, how to interpret it, and what it means, The Strangler Vine is a singularly unsatisfying experience for the reader accustomed to having enough reliable information to race against the author and win more often than not. Second, Avery as narrator also means that we learn of the customs and history of India as and when Avery does, which leads to Carter presenting the history to us via long, explanatory discourses rather than weaving the history into the story seamlessly. Also, Avery as narratory creates a barrier to the reader understanding or getting into the head of his companion, Blake. After 360+ pages, Blake, the more interesting of the two characters, remained opaque. I was unable to develop an opinion on whether I liked him, whether he was trustworthy, whether I wanted to read Carter's sequel to join him on more adventures. . . . Surely, that last item is one Carter should have considered long and hard prior to making the choice to eschew third-person narration - solver of all of the above problems - in favor of limiting readers' investment by putting them in the head of the rather less interesting, less complex of her characters.
Finally, there's a romance element to this book that is unimportant to the plot or outcome, which is a good thing because it's entirely unbelievable.
Now that I've chased away those who might not love The Strangler Vine as much as I did, here's what works:
India - Admittedly, I came to The Strangler Vine with an embarrassing level of ignorance about India's history, although I had some vague notion that the East India Company is the bad guy in almost every 21st century novel in which it appears. Other than that, The Strangler Vine is an excellent introduction to the tension between Indians and European visitors circa 1837, the disdain of Europeans for Hindu beliefs, language, food and customs, and East India Company governance of the territories it ruled at that time. The Strangler Vine also has as one of its key themes the East India Company's analysis and treatment of "Thugs" and beliefs about the origins of "Thuggee" culture, including the then-in-vogue-in-Euro-circles belief that criminal activity was hereditary. (If you read this novel, I promise you you'll never hear the term, "thug," again without appreciating the way governments and ruling societies use perjorative terms to create order, at all costs.)
Plot/pacing. An early murder, robbery while sleeping and other menaces in the first several pages create an atmosphere of tension that Carter uses both to capture and hold the reader's interest and provoke curiosity about the upcoming mission to search for Mountstuart. The trek carries risks to Black and Avery that don't let up, and once Blake and Avery ultimate encounter Mountstuart, they immediately face the challenge of traveling unnoticed to a destination where they'll be safe - no small task given the nature of those seeking their demise and the failure of the mission.
Language. This is Carter's debut novel, although she's written non-fiction previously. Accordingly, her story-telling is natural and straightforward. The amount of real estate she devotes to description is just right, and not too much. This Poe-admirer was well-pleased.
The glossary at the back, and postscript providing the factual framework for the book are wonderful bonuses. Props to Carter for including them and using spellings and language fitting the Victorian setting of her tale. The Strangler Vine was a 4-star read for me. I trust that other readers seeking an adventure in Victorian India, with a little mystery and a lot of culture and history on the side, will enjoy it as much as I did.
First, if you're reading it for the mystery, you might be disappointed. There is one, and it's ultimately solved, tied up in a nice, neat bow; however, because Carter chooses to tell her story through the voice of Avery - young, naive, a company man, deplorer of Indians and their customs, and lover of books, including Mountstuart's - and the last man to figure out at every step of the journey what constitutes a clue, how to interpret it, and what it means, The Strangler Vine is a singularly unsatisfying experience for the reader accustomed to having enough reliable information to race against the author and win more often than not. Second, Avery as narrator also means that we learn of the customs and history of India as and when Avery does, which leads to Carter presenting the history to us via long, explanatory discourses rather than weaving the history into the story seamlessly. Also, Avery as narratory creates a barrier to the reader understanding or getting into the head of his companion, Blake. After 360+ pages, Blake, the more interesting of the two characters, remained opaque. I was unable to develop an opinion on whether I liked him, whether he was trustworthy, whether I wanted to read Carter's sequel to join him on more adventures. . . . Surely, that last item is one Carter should have considered long and hard prior to making the choice to eschew third-person narration - solver of all of the above problems - in favor of limiting readers' investment by putting them in the head of the rather less interesting, less complex of her characters.
Finally, there's a romance element to this book that is unimportant to the plot or outcome, which is a good thing because it's entirely unbelievable.
Now that I've chased away those who might not love The Strangler Vine as much as I did, here's what works:
India - Admittedly, I came to The Strangler Vine with an embarrassing level of ignorance about India's history, although I had some vague notion that the East India Company is the bad guy in almost every 21st century novel in which it appears. Other than that, The Strangler Vine is an excellent introduction to the tension between Indians and European visitors circa 1837, the disdain of Europeans for Hindu beliefs, language, food and customs, and East India Company governance of the territories it ruled at that time. The Strangler Vine also has as one of its key themes the East India Company's analysis and treatment of "Thugs" and beliefs about the origins of "Thuggee" culture, including the then-in-vogue-in-Euro-circles belief that criminal activity was hereditary. (If you read this novel, I promise you you'll never hear the term, "thug," again without appreciating the way governments and ruling societies use perjorative terms to create order, at all costs.)
Plot/pacing. An early murder, robbery while sleeping and other menaces in the first several pages create an atmosphere of tension that Carter uses both to capture and hold the reader's interest and provoke curiosity about the upcoming mission to search for Mountstuart. The trek carries risks to Black and Avery that don't let up, and once Blake and Avery ultimate encounter Mountstuart, they immediately face the challenge of traveling unnoticed to a destination where they'll be safe - no small task given the nature of those seeking their demise and the failure of the mission.
Language. This is Carter's debut novel, although she's written non-fiction previously. Accordingly, her story-telling is natural and straightforward. The amount of real estate she devotes to description is just right, and not too much. This Poe-admirer was well-pleased.
The glossary at the back, and postscript providing the factual framework for the book are wonderful bonuses. Props to Carter for including them and using spellings and language fitting the Victorian setting of her tale. The Strangler Vine was a 4-star read for me. I trust that other readers seeking an adventure in Victorian India, with a little mystery and a lot of culture and history on the side, will enjoy it as much as I did.
January 10, 2022
I listened to the audio version of this book. The narrator did an excellent job of portraying the various characters. The story was very atmospheric, with fascinating descriptions of India during its occupation by the English. It showed the racist and disdainful treatment of the Indians by the English. It's awful to realize that the deceitful behavior of the English at the heart of this book was all true, as described in the epilogue. The only part of the book that I would have left out is the tiger hunt. I know that they happened, but I would rather not read about it and I would have skimmed that chapter if I had been reading the book. I'll definitely read more by this author.
June 12, 2017
The story started off kind of slowly and, to be honest, if it wasn't for the fact that it was set in India in the early 1800s, I might have put it down. But I have an unquenchable fascination with India and Carter's depiction of life during that period was engrossing. What also kept me "reading" was that I was actually listening to this book on Audible and the narrator's voice was mesmerizing. I will defnitely listen to something else--anything else--he has done. ;)
What turned out to be great about this book was the relationship between Blake and Avery, although it shifted so slowly as to be almost imperceptible. Neither realized the bond that was being forged, nor did the reader, as they strove to accomplish their mission. All the characters, in fact, were well fleshed out, which made some of the events that transpired all the more heart-wrenching.
Carter is a great writer and is a perfect example of showing rather than telling. As he chronicles the exploits of the main characters, he provides small details that you may feel are extraneous, yet they come into play later on.
The Strangler Vine was good. It was really good. I love India and I love historical fiction and I love well-written tales. This book was all of those. The only reason it didn't get 5 stars from me is because I wasn't thinking "oh-my-gosh-that-was-so-amazing" when I finished. But it was really good.
What turned out to be great about this book was the relationship between Blake and Avery, although it shifted so slowly as to be almost imperceptible. Neither realized the bond that was being forged, nor did the reader, as they strove to accomplish their mission. All the characters, in fact, were well fleshed out, which made some of the events that transpired all the more heart-wrenching.
Carter is a great writer and is a perfect example of showing rather than telling. As he chronicles the exploits of the main characters, he provides small details that you may feel are extraneous, yet they come into play later on.
The Strangler Vine was good. It was really good. I love India and I love historical fiction and I love well-written tales. This book was all of those. The only reason it didn't get 5 stars from me is because I wasn't thinking "oh-my-gosh-that-was-so-amazing" when I finished. But it was really good.
December 6, 2016
I didn’t enjoy this as much as I thought I would. It sounded exciting. A young, naive East India Company officer (Avery) sent off cross country with an old India hand called Jem Blake to track down a missing author in 1837. Sounds like lots of adventure with spies, ambushes, a violent clan of natives called the Thugs who rob and murder travellers (who actually existed). Unfortunately much of it was quite boring, with not much happening for about two thirds of the book, except for a lot of historical detail and Jem Blake sneaking off to the Bazaars for information while Avery remained clueless. The last third of the book was better once Avery and Blake caught up with the missing author and the plot unfurled but it was a long haul to get there and nearly a dnf for me.
September 7, 2014
This atmospheric and evocative mystery is set in the early days of the Raj. It is 1837 and William Avery is a young Ensign in the East India Company, kicking his heels in Calcutta with a mounting sense of frustration at not being summoned to his cavalry regiment in north Bengal, while he gets overlooked and in more and more debt. One day he is asked to deliver a letter to Jeremiah Blake, who has ‘gone native’ and is surly and surprisingly unimpressed by the summons by the Company which Avery is so loyal to.
Although dispirited by his circumstances and disappointed by India, Avery was half enticed there by the romantic writings of Xavier Mountstuart; author of books such as “The Lion of the Punjab,” and “Foothills of Nepal.” He still has an enduring love and respect for the author and poet, who has not only written a novel which is currently scandalising Calcutta society, but has since gone missing after apparently going to investigate a sect of murderers and worshippers of Kali, called the Thuggee. Unknown to Avery, Jeremiah Blake is being sent to search for the missing writer and Avery has been chosen to unwillingly accompany him. Partly promoted and partly threatened, Avery is the uncomfortable Englishman abroad. While Blake ignores him, the intelligent and kindly Mir Aziz attempts to help him and the native helpers, Nungoo and Sameer, sneer at him, Avery clings to his uniform and the values of the Company he represents.
We follow Black and Avery through a country of Maharajah’s, assassination attempts, dangerous jungles, Indian discontent about British rule, the fear of the Thugee brigands, and, of course, the English – sometimes despotic, like the isolated Major Sleeman, or fascinated with all things Indian, as with Mrs Parkes. This is India in a very interesting period; spanning the time between the rule of the East India Company and the beginning of the Raj proper. A time when men like Blake – happy to make India their home and intermarry were frowned upon - and the ‘fishing fleet’ began to appear; young, unmarried English girls sent to India to make a suitable marriage. Blake has lost his respect for the Company and Avery is going to have his illusions shattered before their adventures are done.
Although this is, in essence, a good old fashioned mystery, it is beautifully written. I was thrilled to discover that there will be another novel featuring Blake and Avery and look forward to reading more of their adventures. If you enjoy historical mysteries with a great plot, an interesting setting and excellent characters, you will enjoy this.
Although dispirited by his circumstances and disappointed by India, Avery was half enticed there by the romantic writings of Xavier Mountstuart; author of books such as “The Lion of the Punjab,” and “Foothills of Nepal.” He still has an enduring love and respect for the author and poet, who has not only written a novel which is currently scandalising Calcutta society, but has since gone missing after apparently going to investigate a sect of murderers and worshippers of Kali, called the Thuggee. Unknown to Avery, Jeremiah Blake is being sent to search for the missing writer and Avery has been chosen to unwillingly accompany him. Partly promoted and partly threatened, Avery is the uncomfortable Englishman abroad. While Blake ignores him, the intelligent and kindly Mir Aziz attempts to help him and the native helpers, Nungoo and Sameer, sneer at him, Avery clings to his uniform and the values of the Company he represents.
We follow Black and Avery through a country of Maharajah’s, assassination attempts, dangerous jungles, Indian discontent about British rule, the fear of the Thugee brigands, and, of course, the English – sometimes despotic, like the isolated Major Sleeman, or fascinated with all things Indian, as with Mrs Parkes. This is India in a very interesting period; spanning the time between the rule of the East India Company and the beginning of the Raj proper. A time when men like Blake – happy to make India their home and intermarry were frowned upon - and the ‘fishing fleet’ began to appear; young, unmarried English girls sent to India to make a suitable marriage. Blake has lost his respect for the Company and Avery is going to have his illusions shattered before their adventures are done.
Although this is, in essence, a good old fashioned mystery, it is beautifully written. I was thrilled to discover that there will be another novel featuring Blake and Avery and look forward to reading more of their adventures. If you enjoy historical mysteries with a great plot, an interesting setting and excellent characters, you will enjoy this.
June 25, 2017
This book entrenched me in India. And I read it within a 3 day period- could hardly put it down. Not that it was easy to slip into, don't get me wrong. It started slow and rather confusing at the same time. Doubled by the fact that one of the two characters I know I got "straight" was "gone" before the plot had even begun to unwind.
It was a good story, had excellent characterizations overall and was nearly a 5 star in prose flow. This has never been one of my favorite places to read about, and especially not in this first half of the 19th century. YET, Ensign turned Liet. Avery and his mentors and hero all become real and the tension sublime.
Strongly recommend this one to those who love adventure, danger, conspiracy, Eastern sub-continent culture/religion/history and the study of politico coups. Despite it holding some revisionist judgments and sensibilities, I enjoyed this one immensely.
BTW, it's 90% a "man" story, IMHO.
And if there is an (Avery and Blake #2) I will read it for sure.
It was a good story, had excellent characterizations overall and was nearly a 5 star in prose flow. This has never been one of my favorite places to read about, and especially not in this first half of the 19th century. YET, Ensign turned Liet. Avery and his mentors and hero all become real and the tension sublime.
Strongly recommend this one to those who love adventure, danger, conspiracy, Eastern sub-continent culture/religion/history and the study of politico coups. Despite it holding some revisionist judgments and sensibilities, I enjoyed this one immensely.
BTW, it's 90% a "man" story, IMHO.
And if there is an (Avery and Blake #2) I will read it for sure.
July 22, 2015
It was probably a mistake to read this one on the hottest days of the year -- 90 degrees and super muggy! Even so, this one I couldn't put down; I had to see how it progressed. 1837, the Raj in India -- twenty years before the Sepoy Mutiny. A duo, former Army officer, Jeremiah Blake, who has spent years in India soaking up the culture and languages and is a master of disguises, along with a young "griffin" [inexperienced] Army lieutenant, William Avery, are tasked by the East India Co. to search in the jungle for a famous pulp writer, Avery's boyhood idol, Xavier Mountstuart. The novel narrates their search. They set out from Calcutta. At Jubbulpore, a dreary place, no one will give them any information. Why? The major in charge is especially unhelpful. At Doora, they meet the Rao [Maharajah] and we get a feel for his opulent court. He gives them a hint of where to go next and they plunge deeper into the dark jungle. They find the author and he's not what they expected. They are captured by Thugs and must fight their way free. The ending was completely unexpected, with betrayal, treachery.
The novel dripped with atmosphere. We saw low-caste people, dacoits, sepoys, Europeans, and the Rao's elegance. I felt as though I were transported back to India of that time, the writing was so vivid. The novel reminded me of a rousing H. Rider Haggard adventure, with breathless excitement on every page. And the idea of their quest reminded me of "Heart of Darkness" though the denouement differed. Pacing was very good. I especially enjoyed the exciting tiger hunt.
Highly recommended.
The novel dripped with atmosphere. We saw low-caste people, dacoits, sepoys, Europeans, and the Rao's elegance. I felt as though I were transported back to India of that time, the writing was so vivid. The novel reminded me of a rousing H. Rider Haggard adventure, with breathless excitement on every page. And the idea of their quest reminded me of "Heart of Darkness" though the denouement differed. Pacing was very good. I especially enjoyed the exciting tiger hunt.
Highly recommended.
February 18, 2014
I deliberated for quite a long while over this review and rating. Carter has done a lot of research and I like what she aimed to do with this novel. I just don't like her execution. A well researched and interesting historical relook in on The East India Trade Company is marred by an oddly distancing first person narration that slows down the pace of the book and bogs down the middle. To add to the pacing problem, there is so much detail but very little plot progression until the end. I wanted to love this book but I couldn't get past the slow pace which kept drawing me out of the story.
A pdf copy was provided by the publisher.
A pdf copy was provided by the publisher.
June 19, 2025
RE-LISTEN UPDATE: After recently reading two India-centric "Flashman books" (Great Game and Mountain of Light), I wanted to listen to this one again, and I was NOT disappointed. Absolutely just as good the second time around, and exactly the same thoughts as my original review (below), with the only difference being that Blake and Avery are just such delightful characters here that I'll probably go ahead and listen now to the second book in the series — The Infidel Stain — despite the "boring" London setting, just to see how they stand up on their home turf.
This story in fact takes place in 1839, the same year that Harry Flashman arrived in India in Fraser's first eponymous story, and so in "the literary multiverse," all three characters could well have been in Calcutta at the same time. Anyway, despite their wildly different tone, both series compliment each other in describing the waning years of the East India Company's omnipotence in South Asia, all leading up to the Mutiny twenty years later (just as Blake predicts in the story here). Great stuff all.
ORIGINAL REVIEW: Delightful story with an outstanding narration by Alex Wyndham — he manages to juggle over a dozen distinct British and Indian characters while giving them distinct and (to my ear at least) accurate accents and voices — will have to look for more from him.
I do have to admit that the plot left me kind of confused for at least the first 2/3's of the book — why were they going to so much trouble just to locate a lost poet? But that confusion was more than compensated for by Carter's vivid mid-19th Century British Raj world building. And then, of course, for the last third or quarter of the story Carter brings everything together with a number of "ah-ha!" moments and plot twists that pretty much explain everything.
There are currently two more books in the "Avery & Blake" series, but sadly they both take place in England, and so for now at least I'll give them a pass — much prefer the exotic and/or colonial settings. It frankly just seems like a bit of a wasted opportunity, especially when you consider how many international situations George MacDonald Fraser was able to stick Harry Flashman in the middle of, during the same time period.
TRIVIA: Always interesting to be reminded of how many "English" words are rooted in Hindi — pajamas, juggernaut, khaki, bungalow, etc. Of particular note here, Carter keeps referring to the "jangal" which is of course where we get the word "jungle" from, and which in the context of the story does indeed seem to refer to thick forest. But what I found fascinating (although granted, I am easily fascinated) was the fact that "jangal" itself comes from the Sanskrit जङ्गल (jangala), meaning "sparsely grown; dry, arid," which then in the Hindi jangal came to mean "uncultivated ground"...leading to the English mis-interpretation as overgrown, unplantable forest (i.e., jungle) — the exact opposite of its original definition. Language is fun!
This story in fact takes place in 1839, the same year that Harry Flashman arrived in India in Fraser's first eponymous story, and so in "the literary multiverse," all three characters could well have been in Calcutta at the same time. Anyway, despite their wildly different tone, both series compliment each other in describing the waning years of the East India Company's omnipotence in South Asia, all leading up to the Mutiny twenty years later (just as Blake predicts in the story here). Great stuff all.
ORIGINAL REVIEW: Delightful story with an outstanding narration by Alex Wyndham — he manages to juggle over a dozen distinct British and Indian characters while giving them distinct and (to my ear at least) accurate accents and voices — will have to look for more from him.
I do have to admit that the plot left me kind of confused for at least the first 2/3's of the book — why were they going to so much trouble just to locate a lost poet? But that confusion was more than compensated for by Carter's vivid mid-19th Century British Raj world building. And then, of course, for the last third or quarter of the story Carter brings everything together with a number of "ah-ha!" moments and plot twists that pretty much explain everything.
There are currently two more books in the "Avery & Blake" series, but sadly they both take place in England, and so for now at least I'll give them a pass — much prefer the exotic and/or colonial settings. It frankly just seems like a bit of a wasted opportunity, especially when you consider how many international situations George MacDonald Fraser was able to stick Harry Flashman in the middle of, during the same time period.
TRIVIA: Always interesting to be reminded of how many "English" words are rooted in Hindi — pajamas, juggernaut, khaki, bungalow, etc. Of particular note here, Carter keeps referring to the "jangal" which is of course where we get the word "jungle" from, and which in the context of the story does indeed seem to refer to thick forest. But what I found fascinating (although granted, I am easily fascinated) was the fact that "jangal" itself comes from the Sanskrit जङ्गल (jangala), meaning "sparsely grown; dry, arid," which then in the Hindi jangal came to mean "uncultivated ground"...leading to the English mis-interpretation as overgrown, unplantable forest (i.e., jungle) — the exact opposite of its original definition. Language is fun!
November 18, 2016
You can't get away with being Rudyard Kipling anymore. Novels set in 19th century India can present British characters as protagonists, but if they're uncritically accepting of British rule and treating the Indians as heathen savages, there are probably going to be some words for the author about "colonialism" and "cultural appropriation," etc. I give M.J. Carter credit for willing to even go there at all, let alone write a novel centered around that most sensationalist and misunderstood Indian institution so beloved and misunderstood by Western writers, the Thuggee cult.
She manages to write a pretty good adventure tale that hearkens back to ye olden days while being just critical enough of British rule to placate modern sensibilities.
Set in the 1830s, when the British East India Company ruled India as a virtually autonomous government, before the crown took over for good, The Strangler Vine starts by introducing us to William Avery, a young officer in the Company - brave, naive, prone to losing all his worldly possessions in card games, naturally in love with a woman who's out of his league. Avery is assigned to help an older India hand, Jeremiah Blake, go find a famous writer who's gone missing in northern India. Blake is a renegade, a sort of legendary figure who now hates the Company and refuses all promotions or awards, but is still forced to occassionally do their bidding. He is not happy about being given young Avery as his sidekick, and Avery resents being treated as an unwanted tagalong.
As they proceed north, the author presents a colorful description of Indian life, complete with opium stalls, garish and splendid Rajas' courts, elephants, tigers, and of course, Thuggees.
According to popular legend, the Thuggees were a cult of organized robbers and murderers dedicated to the Hindu goddess Kali. They were a notorious scourge throughout India, and the British spent a lot of effort, and killed a lot of people, trying to exterminate them. More recent scholarship has cast this popular history into doubt - did the Thuggees really exist? If they did, were they ever really so vast and dangerous, and were they really some sort of fanatical suicide cult, or were they just a bunch of brigands like you'll find in wild regions everywhere else in the world?
The Strangler Vine tackles this controversy as Blake and Avery head deep into Thuggee territory in search of a writer who was researching them. At its heart, the book is a sort of historical mystery that sets up the two protagonists as buddies for future Anglo-Indian adventures. There is skullduggery, scheming, and double-crossing on the part of both Indians and British, and plenty of historical flavor (including an Afterword by the author).
She manages to write a pretty good adventure tale that hearkens back to ye olden days while being just critical enough of British rule to placate modern sensibilities.
Set in the 1830s, when the British East India Company ruled India as a virtually autonomous government, before the crown took over for good, The Strangler Vine starts by introducing us to William Avery, a young officer in the Company - brave, naive, prone to losing all his worldly possessions in card games, naturally in love with a woman who's out of his league. Avery is assigned to help an older India hand, Jeremiah Blake, go find a famous writer who's gone missing in northern India. Blake is a renegade, a sort of legendary figure who now hates the Company and refuses all promotions or awards, but is still forced to occassionally do their bidding. He is not happy about being given young Avery as his sidekick, and Avery resents being treated as an unwanted tagalong.
As they proceed north, the author presents a colorful description of Indian life, complete with opium stalls, garish and splendid Rajas' courts, elephants, tigers, and of course, Thuggees.
According to popular legend, the Thuggees were a cult of organized robbers and murderers dedicated to the Hindu goddess Kali. They were a notorious scourge throughout India, and the British spent a lot of effort, and killed a lot of people, trying to exterminate them. More recent scholarship has cast this popular history into doubt - did the Thuggees really exist? If they did, were they ever really so vast and dangerous, and were they really some sort of fanatical suicide cult, or were they just a bunch of brigands like you'll find in wild regions everywhere else in the world?
The Strangler Vine tackles this controversy as Blake and Avery head deep into Thuggee territory in search of a writer who was researching them. At its heart, the book is a sort of historical mystery that sets up the two protagonists as buddies for future Anglo-Indian adventures. There is skullduggery, scheming, and double-crossing on the part of both Indians and British, and plenty of historical flavor (including an Afterword by the author).
July 26, 2021
Wasn't sure what to expect from this one going into the experience. I suppose I feared it would be too setting-based sacrificing an engaging story? Not at all! I'm not that visual a reader, but here I was able to place myself in the action easily; reminded me of Hillerman's ability to transport readers to Navajo Country.
Story didn't strike me as a traditional "mystery" as such, since those usually include a murder or robbery as the issue to resolve, while here it's a missing person. Without rehashing plot too much, a basic outline would run roughly as follows: we meet Avery, through whom the story is told, with an look at the colonial Calcutta experience in the days The Company ran the show; he's paired with the mysterious Blake in an assignment to find a missing person, far away requiring lots of "provincial" travel; next section (said travel) highlights the British-native relationship, definitely not pretty, best described as "messy"; the missing person aspect is resolved, which ushers in an action/adventure phase (Indiana Jones); the conclusion works okay, though honestly an anti-climax. Not as obvious for those reading the book when it first came out, but I was firmly aware that they live to fight another day in two more books when their survival seemed in doubt.
As mentioned, I'm not a visual reader, so I didn't have an idea of the guys' looks while reading. The secondary characters, yes. Those were a well-drawn lot, hardly "cardboard" at all. Blake does get a bit preachy a couple of times regarding the unfairness of the system to natives, but as that's a historical truth needing to be made clear, it worked. At the risk of spoilers, I won't say more about events.
It's a well-written story that would've left me conflicted about three vs. four stars. However, the outstanding narration took care of that! I'll be looking out for more books read by Alex Wyndham in future! Unfortunately, I'm going likely not to read the other books, set in England, as the reviews, and comments from GR friends who've read those, indicate probable disappointment. Leaving this one as a terrific stand-alone, which is definitely recommended!
Story didn't strike me as a traditional "mystery" as such, since those usually include a murder or robbery as the issue to resolve, while here it's a missing person. Without rehashing plot too much, a basic outline would run roughly as follows: we meet Avery, through whom the story is told, with an look at the colonial Calcutta experience in the days The Company ran the show; he's paired with the mysterious Blake in an assignment to find a missing person, far away requiring lots of "provincial" travel; next section (said travel) highlights the British-native relationship, definitely not pretty, best described as "messy"; the missing person aspect is resolved, which ushers in an action/adventure phase (Indiana Jones); the conclusion works okay, though honestly an anti-climax. Not as obvious for those reading the book when it first came out, but I was firmly aware that they live to fight another day in two more books when their survival seemed in doubt.
As mentioned, I'm not a visual reader, so I didn't have an idea of the guys' looks while reading. The secondary characters, yes. Those were a well-drawn lot, hardly "cardboard" at all. Blake does get a bit preachy a couple of times regarding the unfairness of the system to natives, but as that's a historical truth needing to be made clear, it worked. At the risk of spoilers, I won't say more about events.
It's a well-written story that would've left me conflicted about three vs. four stars. However, the outstanding narration took care of that! I'll be looking out for more books read by Alex Wyndham in future! Unfortunately, I'm going likely not to read the other books, set in England, as the reviews, and comments from GR friends who've read those, indicate probable disappointment. Leaving this one as a terrific stand-alone, which is definitely recommended!
June 30, 2016
An interesting premise/plot - the unlikely pairing of a young and very naive British soldier with an enigmatic, older special agent to track and find a popular author in the hinterlands of 1837 India.
Said author - the idol of the youngster and friend of our grizzled veteran - is either in trouble or causing trouble, depending on whom our dynamic duo questions in their endeavor to find him.
Unfortunately this adventure tale quickly bogs down with too much descriptive detail - within a couple of chapters our two heroes embark on a 700 mile journey and reading it felt every bit as long as the three weeks it takes in this book.
Also the narrator, our young soldier, comes across as not only naive, but at times childish and even petulant - which impedes the story-line as the reader waits for him to get over his snits and resume the story.
There's enough potential here that I will try the next in the series. Hopefully it will have a more consistent and even flow to its telling.
Said author - the idol of the youngster and friend of our grizzled veteran - is either in trouble or causing trouble, depending on whom our dynamic duo questions in their endeavor to find him.
Unfortunately this adventure tale quickly bogs down with too much descriptive detail - within a couple of chapters our two heroes embark on a 700 mile journey and reading it felt every bit as long as the three weeks it takes in this book.
Also the narrator, our young soldier, comes across as not only naive, but at times childish and even petulant - which impedes the story-line as the reader waits for him to get over his snits and resume the story.
There's enough potential here that I will try the next in the series. Hopefully it will have a more consistent and even flow to its telling.
May 13, 2017
This book has been sitting in my Kindle for over a year, but during a time that I am reading two other and longer books I wanted to read something different on the device. The cover was attractive, and the writeup sounded good and so I decided to give this detective novel a try. I really loved it. I am unsure as to why I have become attracted to books either by British authors, or set in Britain or in India - it could be that our cousin is engaged to a wonderful Indian gentleman who I greatly respect and love chatting with -or maybe it is just the entire British colonial period that has peaked my interest.
For whatever the reason I really enjoyed this book, a detective novel set back in colonial India in 1837. It is filled with wonderful historical characters, as well as Indian and Hindu culture and poses some very interesting thoughts and questions about the East India Company along the course of the novel.
Avery and Blake are sent to find a missing author, a man whom himself is looking to solve some issues as related to the Thuggee (road bandit) problems. We also have a lot of action, a tiger hunt, an attempted overthrow of a Rao, and the list goes on and on. Our heroes are kidnapped, make a remarkable escape, only to have other dangers befall them. It is not always action, since the author does his best to give is the flavor of India in 1937 and by using true life characters and incidents he imbues the novel with great sense of realism.
This is the first of three books and I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series in the near future. A very well done first novel by M.J. Carter and one that really does transport you back to colonial India times.
For whatever the reason I really enjoyed this book, a detective novel set back in colonial India in 1837. It is filled with wonderful historical characters, as well as Indian and Hindu culture and poses some very interesting thoughts and questions about the East India Company along the course of the novel.
Avery and Blake are sent to find a missing author, a man whom himself is looking to solve some issues as related to the Thuggee (road bandit) problems. We also have a lot of action, a tiger hunt, an attempted overthrow of a Rao, and the list goes on and on. Our heroes are kidnapped, make a remarkable escape, only to have other dangers befall them. It is not always action, since the author does his best to give is the flavor of India in 1937 and by using true life characters and incidents he imbues the novel with great sense of realism.
This is the first of three books and I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series in the near future. A very well done first novel by M.J. Carter and one that really does transport you back to colonial India times.
May 8, 2022
This was freakin' fantastic and I loved it! ❤️
If you can only do one version go for the audio by Alex Wyndham. A pleasure.
If you can only do one version go for the audio by Alex Wyndham. A pleasure.
November 8, 2018
I have an interest in The British Raj and The Great Game , as well as thrillers. This novel is a Victorian historical, conspiracy thriller, set in the British Raj. It was entertaining, but I thought the author was better at producing atmosphere than a compelling conspiracy.
Prose was good. Descriptive prose was better than dialog. The author goes to some length to use Victorian period vernacular. The protagonist is a member of the English gentry. Having a familiarity with Wilkie Collins and H. Rider Haggard will hold you in good stead here. Some familiarly with South Asian (Indian) languages would be helpful. Common and period Indian terms appear in the narrative without definition. For example, the modernly common Lakh and the less common nautch . Action scenes were well done. However, I thought the protagonist was overly lucky in “dodging death” on many occasions. Descriptive prose is mostly in the period vernacular, although, I saw modern sensibilities at work.
There was no sex, some drug usage and a lot of violence in the story. There were references to native prostitution with both sexes, but no sex scenes. The mildly romantic scenes were written with Victorian prudishness. Alcohol use and abuse occurs in several scenes. Its usage conforms to the attitude of the period. In addition, the use of an opiate (raw opium) plays a significant part in the story. However, its use and abuse is also with the historical attitude of the period. Violence includes: physical, edged-weapon and firearms. It is moderately graphic. Wounds, blood and painful death are descriptively rendered. In summary, this story would qualify as YA reading based on current norms.
Note a large part of this story is Victorian-period edu-tainment. There is a large amount of period: social interaction, politics, literature, pharmacology, and military-tech discussed. In addition, historical figures appear in the narrative, although the author has taken some liberties with their behavior. In addition, the author attempts to describe the poverty and its effects in 1840’s rural India. She could have done a better job at the poverty-porn. From my own readings, I believe it was more horrific than described.
Characters were good, but not without their flaws. The protagonist and POV is that of William Avery, a naive lieutenant in the Honorable East India Company (The Company). He follows the trope of “youngest, son of minor English gentry farmed-off to the military to make his fortune, due to lack of an inheritance”. He’s handsome, sits a horse well and is a crack shot with firearms. I suppose he’s a form of Victorian English action hero? Jeremiah Blake is an Old Asian Hand who has used as a “fixer” by The Company in the past. He's not a gentleman. He’s gone native, and is considered eccentric, but is brilliant and with useful skillz. Blake and Avery have a Holmes/Watson relationship throughout the story. Mir Aziz is the noble savage. He’s a Muslim native, who is a long-time company employee also with skillz, only he’s not a “white man”. Xavier Mountstuart is the McGuffin. He’s a famous, brilliant iconoclast and “The King of Poets” in India. There are numerous other major and minor characters real and imaginary. In general, the colonial English all fit the Raj stereotype of jingoistic, rapacious and racially insensitive. The native Indian characters range from Aziz and Indian Rajahs to beggars, thieves, prostitutes and the odd holy man. Only Aziz and the Indian royalty get scant development. Oddly for a female author, women have only a very small part in the story. There is only three of note: a young English woman (Avery's love interest) falling into the written by Jane Austen category, the other being a contemporary, female character (another 'fixer') placed in the story for contrast, and finally a high-caste Hindu dowager.
Plot is straight forward. The journey is more important than arriving. Mountstuart is lost in the hinterland beyond the Company’s area of control. Blake is tasked with retrieving him by the Company’s bureaucrat in-charge of “delicate situations”. Avery is attached to the party through coercion to keep an eye on the unstable Blake. Aziz is part of the native support. During the search, Avery grows into a man in a combination of man-against-nature and man-against-man conflicts. Numerous red herrings litter the path. A conspiracy around Mountstuart is found and exposed, but nobody comes out with clean hands. A long exposition concludes the story and reveals the true antagonist. I found the real antagonist to be possible, but hard to accept. It has a very un-Victorian British ending. The ending sets-up for a potential second book.
World building was good, but not perfect. A vast swath of the Indian locale is traversed under primitive and dangerous conditions. I did not get the feeling the author had spent much time in the few remaining South Asian malarial backwaters available today or she knew a lot about horses. However, the scenery was gorgeous and background exotic. Having separately read about the period and location, the author did a good job with the world building, although her 1840's India was less grubby and disease ridden than the one I've read about.
This was a good story, but not a great one. Books originally written in the period rarely include a Perfidious Albion. It vaguely reminded me of both Joseph Conrad and W. Somerset Maugham . I enjoyed the early 19th Century Indian colonial setting. It was the best character. However, the dynamic duo of Blake/Avery was a pale shadow of Holmes/Watson. This read was OK, but not worth immediately starting the next in the series ( The Infidel Stain ) . With this next book, the author abandons India for the more traditional London setting of Victorian detective duos. India is a much more original and interesting setting for this series.
If you're interested in a conspiracy thriller historical fiction set in the Indian Victorian period, I recommend Kim . For non-fiction I recommend Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan . Avery leaves for Afghanistan at the end of this story. Several of the historical figures mentioned in this novel are described there in detail.
Prose was good. Descriptive prose was better than dialog. The author goes to some length to use Victorian period vernacular. The protagonist is a member of the English gentry. Having a familiarity with Wilkie Collins and H. Rider Haggard will hold you in good stead here. Some familiarly with South Asian (Indian) languages would be helpful. Common and period Indian terms appear in the narrative without definition. For example, the modernly common Lakh and the less common nautch . Action scenes were well done. However, I thought the protagonist was overly lucky in “dodging death” on many occasions. Descriptive prose is mostly in the period vernacular, although, I saw modern sensibilities at work.
There was no sex, some drug usage and a lot of violence in the story. There were references to native prostitution with both sexes, but no sex scenes. The mildly romantic scenes were written with Victorian prudishness. Alcohol use and abuse occurs in several scenes. Its usage conforms to the attitude of the period. In addition, the use of an opiate (raw opium) plays a significant part in the story. However, its use and abuse is also with the historical attitude of the period. Violence includes: physical, edged-weapon and firearms. It is moderately graphic. Wounds, blood and painful death are descriptively rendered. In summary, this story would qualify as YA reading based on current norms.
Note a large part of this story is Victorian-period edu-tainment. There is a large amount of period: social interaction, politics, literature, pharmacology, and military-tech discussed. In addition, historical figures appear in the narrative, although the author has taken some liberties with their behavior. In addition, the author attempts to describe the poverty and its effects in 1840’s rural India. She could have done a better job at the poverty-porn. From my own readings, I believe it was more horrific than described.
Characters were good, but not without their flaws. The protagonist and POV is that of William Avery, a naive lieutenant in the Honorable East India Company (The Company). He follows the trope of “youngest, son of minor English gentry farmed-off to the military to make his fortune, due to lack of an inheritance”. He’s handsome, sits a horse well and is a crack shot with firearms. I suppose he’s a form of Victorian English action hero? Jeremiah Blake is an Old Asian Hand who has used as a “fixer” by The Company in the past. He's not a gentleman. He’s gone native, and is considered eccentric, but is brilliant and with useful skillz. Blake and Avery have a Holmes/Watson relationship throughout the story. Mir Aziz is the noble savage. He’s a Muslim native, who is a long-time company employee also with skillz, only he’s not a “white man”. Xavier Mountstuart is the McGuffin. He’s a famous, brilliant iconoclast and “The King of Poets” in India. There are numerous other major and minor characters real and imaginary. In general, the colonial English all fit the Raj stereotype of jingoistic, rapacious and racially insensitive. The native Indian characters range from Aziz and Indian Rajahs to beggars, thieves, prostitutes and the odd holy man. Only Aziz and the Indian royalty get scant development. Oddly for a female author, women have only a very small part in the story. There is only three of note: a young English woman (Avery's love interest) falling into the written by Jane Austen category, the other being a contemporary, female character (another 'fixer') placed in the story for contrast, and finally a high-caste Hindu dowager.
Plot is straight forward. The journey is more important than arriving. Mountstuart is lost in the hinterland beyond the Company’s area of control. Blake is tasked with retrieving him by the Company’s bureaucrat in-charge of “delicate situations”. Avery is attached to the party through coercion to keep an eye on the unstable Blake. Aziz is part of the native support. During the search, Avery grows into a man in a combination of man-against-nature and man-against-man conflicts. Numerous red herrings litter the path. A conspiracy around Mountstuart is found and exposed, but nobody comes out with clean hands. A long exposition concludes the story and reveals the true antagonist. I found the real antagonist to be possible, but hard to accept. It has a very un-Victorian British ending. The ending sets-up for a potential second book.
World building was good, but not perfect. A vast swath of the Indian locale is traversed under primitive and dangerous conditions. I did not get the feeling the author had spent much time in the few remaining South Asian malarial backwaters available today or she knew a lot about horses. However, the scenery was gorgeous and background exotic. Having separately read about the period and location, the author did a good job with the world building, although her 1840's India was less grubby and disease ridden than the one I've read about.
This was a good story, but not a great one. Books originally written in the period rarely include a Perfidious Albion. It vaguely reminded me of both Joseph Conrad and W. Somerset Maugham . I enjoyed the early 19th Century Indian colonial setting. It was the best character. However, the dynamic duo of Blake/Avery was a pale shadow of Holmes/Watson. This read was OK, but not worth immediately starting the next in the series ( The Infidel Stain ) . With this next book, the author abandons India for the more traditional London setting of Victorian detective duos. India is a much more original and interesting setting for this series.
If you're interested in a conspiracy thriller historical fiction set in the Indian Victorian period, I recommend Kim . For non-fiction I recommend Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan . Avery leaves for Afghanistan at the end of this story. Several of the historical figures mentioned in this novel are described there in detail.
August 26, 2014
This novel had a slow start, but after the first few chapters the plot really picked up in pace. I enjoyed the balance of action, mystery, and history, and loved that the plot was unpredictable. I love reading about this time in British/Indian history, it has always fascinated me, and it was great to read a book that makes this period seem exciting. The characters were moderately well developed, but the plot is what really made me enjoy the book. I would recommend this novel to anyone interested in India and its history, and anyone that likes a fast paced mystery.
Thanks for Goodreads First Reads for providing a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
Thanks for Goodreads First Reads for providing a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
July 23, 2022
The title alludes to both the sinuous vines that choke the densely packed trees of northern India and the murderous thuggee (from which the word “thug” is derived), who were said to strangle their victims with knotted orange scarves called “rumal,” and dedicate their promiscuous acts of horror to the goddess Kali.
This is an adventure tale set in India in 1837. The East India Company was consolidating profit and power. Their strategies included wresting territories from local rajas, forcing the substitution of cash crops like opium and indigo for food, and creating administrative outposts backed by military force. In Calcutta where one of our protagonists is stationed, there is a Whitetown frequented by Europeans, and a Blacktown frequented by the locals. Whitetown is an information bubble. Almost no one troubles to learn anything of the local languages or customs. There, the Company carefully controls the party line which newly assigned Ensign William Avery is too naive to question. In the bazaars of Blacktown, rumors run rife of intrigue, conspiracy, and growing unrest.
Avery lands the important but puzzling assignment of accompanying Jeremiah Blake, a company veteran who has gone native, in a search for a renowned but scandalously sensational author, Xavier Montstuart, last seen in the remote outpost of Jubbulpore. He had claimed to be researching the Thuggee about whom he intended to write a volume of epic poetry. Jubbulpore was the outpost of Major William Sleeman, renowned for stamping out Thugism and writing a comprehensive volume documenting their barbaric beliefs and origins.
The narrative is from Avery's point of view, and we enjoy hearing him expound on his mistaken beliefs and complaining of his obvious discomfort. Determined to maintain his dignity, he insists on wearing his heavy uniform over the 700 plus mile trek from Calcutta to Jubbulpore. Blake and his native assistants, of course, are garbed in the much more comfortable native dress. Avery's main qualification for this trek is his health. He is one of the few officers still on his feet as cholera rages in Calcutta. His other asset, as his superior points out to him, is that he is expendable. Blake, on the other hand, is truculent and secretive, but has the advantage of speaking Hindustani, Urdu, Bengali, Marathi and Pashtun fluently. Moreover, he has personal reasons for undertaking this expedition.
Much of Carter's narrative describes the stifling humidity, the fetid smells and oppressive heat of the journey. She conveys a foreign travelogue of both time and place that are mesmerizing. As the journey progresses, a collection of characters, many actual historic figures, are introduced. Skillfully crafted dialogue gives each of them a distinct personality. She even includes an excerpt from Montstuart's latest romance. It's cliché ridden improbability says much about Avery's romantic enthrallment, which led him to India in the first place, and Montstuart's satirical talents.
This was fun to read and had the added bonus of an appendix filled with historical background notes. I became aware of this book from a Goodreads reviewer.
NOTES:
Map of India from the Raj period which shows some of the towns mentioned in the book. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...
This is an adventure tale set in India in 1837. The East India Company was consolidating profit and power. Their strategies included wresting territories from local rajas, forcing the substitution of cash crops like opium and indigo for food, and creating administrative outposts backed by military force. In Calcutta where one of our protagonists is stationed, there is a Whitetown frequented by Europeans, and a Blacktown frequented by the locals. Whitetown is an information bubble. Almost no one troubles to learn anything of the local languages or customs. There, the Company carefully controls the party line which newly assigned Ensign William Avery is too naive to question. In the bazaars of Blacktown, rumors run rife of intrigue, conspiracy, and growing unrest.
Avery lands the important but puzzling assignment of accompanying Jeremiah Blake, a company veteran who has gone native, in a search for a renowned but scandalously sensational author, Xavier Montstuart, last seen in the remote outpost of Jubbulpore. He had claimed to be researching the Thuggee about whom he intended to write a volume of epic poetry. Jubbulpore was the outpost of Major William Sleeman, renowned for stamping out Thugism and writing a comprehensive volume documenting their barbaric beliefs and origins.
The narrative is from Avery's point of view, and we enjoy hearing him expound on his mistaken beliefs and complaining of his obvious discomfort. Determined to maintain his dignity, he insists on wearing his heavy uniform over the 700 plus mile trek from Calcutta to Jubbulpore. Blake and his native assistants, of course, are garbed in the much more comfortable native dress. Avery's main qualification for this trek is his health. He is one of the few officers still on his feet as cholera rages in Calcutta. His other asset, as his superior points out to him, is that he is expendable. Blake, on the other hand, is truculent and secretive, but has the advantage of speaking Hindustani, Urdu, Bengali, Marathi and Pashtun fluently. Moreover, he has personal reasons for undertaking this expedition.
Much of Carter's narrative describes the stifling humidity, the fetid smells and oppressive heat of the journey. She conveys a foreign travelogue of both time and place that are mesmerizing. As the journey progresses, a collection of characters, many actual historic figures, are introduced. Skillfully crafted dialogue gives each of them a distinct personality. She even includes an excerpt from Montstuart's latest romance. It's cliché ridden improbability says much about Avery's romantic enthrallment, which led him to India in the first place, and Montstuart's satirical talents.
This was fun to read and had the added bonus of an appendix filled with historical background notes. I became aware of this book from a Goodreads reviewer.
NOTES:
Map of India from the Raj period which shows some of the towns mentioned in the book. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...
March 3, 2014
In short: Calcutta, 1837. Two very different East India Company officers are given a dangerous quest: to track down Xavier Mountstuart, the elusive, disgraced author. A fairly rip-roaring Victorian adventure story.
Carter’s first novel opens in September 1837. The voice is that of William Avery, a young East India Company recruit from Devon, England. In between longing for his countryside home and deploring the heat and the seeming barbarity of Indian customs (“any honest Christian would want to pull [this temple] down and hang its priests...The place seemed to me heavy with evil, degradation and corruption,” he thinks), Avery finds plenty of time for reading. He loves Mr. Dickens’s brand new The Pickwick Papers, but his favorite author is Xavier Mountstuart, who writes both poetry and Indian adventure stories. “Mountstuart seemed to me the very acme of Byronic manhood,” Avery enthuses, and, indeed, this fictional author sounds something like a cross between Lord Byron, Sir Walter Scott, and Rudyard Kipling.
With his pal Frank Macpherson, Avery forms a great pair of hapless Dickensian bachelors; the two remind me of Pip and Herbert Pocket in Great Expectations, or Davy and Tommy Traddles in David Copperfield. But this particular friendship soon ends, and Avery finds himself taking on a strange new mission. He is asked to summon Jeremiah Blake, an older, jaded officer who seems to have gone rogue. Blake knows multiple Indian languages and even had an Indian wife – has he so gone native as to have lost all loyalty to the Company? Avery is to bring Blake back into service; together they are tasked with tracking down the missing Mountstuart, who has become persona non grata with the Company after his latest novel, a saucy roman à clef, revealed details of all the major scandals of Calcutta’s expatriate society. Readers’ memorable introduction to Blake is fantastically blunt: “F— off, lobster,” he grumbles at Avery – using a derogatory term that referred to the English soldiers’ bright red uniforms.
In the course of their fraught journey, Avery and Blake learn more about the “Thugs,” a particular ethnic group of highwaymen, who were thought to accost foreign travelers and become friendly with them, then strangle them with red scarves and rob them before devoting their corpses to the goddess Kali. Mountstuart had been traveling north to research the Thugs when he disappeared. Fear of “Thuggee” was widespread in both India and England – and presumably explains the etymology of our modern word “thug,” meaning an unintelligent and menacing person. Back in England, intrigued readers devoured Confessions of a Thug, which Carter dubs “a now unreadable Gothic novel by Philip Meadows-Taylor,” as well as Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone. (Thugs might also have been an intended element in Dickens’s unfinished final novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which features some Indian characters.) Blake and Avery begin to suspect there might be some sort of conspiracy afoot: it seems the English are deliberately encouraging, or even embroidering, the myth of the Thugs to maintain some order in the colony.
When Blake and Avery finally meet up with Mountstuart, he is – inevitably, for an idol – not everything Avery expected. “You should know that your hero’s books are compendiums of fabrication and falsity,” Blake warns him. And Mountstuart himself is scatterbrained, haughty, and as bad an opium addict as Thomas de Quincey ever was. All the same, he is an engaging character and provides some comic relief in the book’s mid-section.
I mustn’t reveal too much of the plot that follows – especially because Carter has already announced that a sequel, The Infidel Stain, is already in the pipeline, due in January 2015 (there was a taster of its first chapters at the end of my e-galley). However, I think it’s important to point out that there is too much dialogue, and far too many descriptive passages, for my liking. This means that the novel is slow to start and truly lags at some points thereafter. Only gradually does it become a fairly rip-roaring Victorian adventure story, in the vein of H. Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines. I did especially enjoy the fight scenes – though not one between Avery and a white tiger.
Unfortunately, Carter’s writing doesn’t quite live up to the great historical material she had at her disposal. The Strangler Vine reminds me most of Matthew Pearl’s The Last Dickens, with which it shares some plot elements. I would rate Carter’s novel on a par with the latter or with Lynn Shepherd’s Victorian mystery, The Solitary House. Ultimately, I wondered if her book might not have worked better as a third-person omniscient tale. This could have made it even more of a genuine Victorian pastiche, and might have made the historical background information a more seamless part of the plot, rather than shoehorned in through what Avery is able to learn or observe. As it is, the glossary and author’s note at the end of the book are almost more interesting than the novel that went before.
The Infidel Stain opens in London with a gruesome murder at a printing press, and then has Blake and Avery reuniting for another mission. I’m not sure I’ll keep up with their continuing story; I can only ever be bothered to read sequels when the characters are utterly irresistible, and I just didn’t find Carter’s Avery compelling enough as a narrator.
(This review originally appeared at Bookkaholic.)
Carter’s first novel opens in September 1837. The voice is that of William Avery, a young East India Company recruit from Devon, England. In between longing for his countryside home and deploring the heat and the seeming barbarity of Indian customs (“any honest Christian would want to pull [this temple] down and hang its priests...The place seemed to me heavy with evil, degradation and corruption,” he thinks), Avery finds plenty of time for reading. He loves Mr. Dickens’s brand new The Pickwick Papers, but his favorite author is Xavier Mountstuart, who writes both poetry and Indian adventure stories. “Mountstuart seemed to me the very acme of Byronic manhood,” Avery enthuses, and, indeed, this fictional author sounds something like a cross between Lord Byron, Sir Walter Scott, and Rudyard Kipling.
With his pal Frank Macpherson, Avery forms a great pair of hapless Dickensian bachelors; the two remind me of Pip and Herbert Pocket in Great Expectations, or Davy and Tommy Traddles in David Copperfield. But this particular friendship soon ends, and Avery finds himself taking on a strange new mission. He is asked to summon Jeremiah Blake, an older, jaded officer who seems to have gone rogue. Blake knows multiple Indian languages and even had an Indian wife – has he so gone native as to have lost all loyalty to the Company? Avery is to bring Blake back into service; together they are tasked with tracking down the missing Mountstuart, who has become persona non grata with the Company after his latest novel, a saucy roman à clef, revealed details of all the major scandals of Calcutta’s expatriate society. Readers’ memorable introduction to Blake is fantastically blunt: “F— off, lobster,” he grumbles at Avery – using a derogatory term that referred to the English soldiers’ bright red uniforms.
In the course of their fraught journey, Avery and Blake learn more about the “Thugs,” a particular ethnic group of highwaymen, who were thought to accost foreign travelers and become friendly with them, then strangle them with red scarves and rob them before devoting their corpses to the goddess Kali. Mountstuart had been traveling north to research the Thugs when he disappeared. Fear of “Thuggee” was widespread in both India and England – and presumably explains the etymology of our modern word “thug,” meaning an unintelligent and menacing person. Back in England, intrigued readers devoured Confessions of a Thug, which Carter dubs “a now unreadable Gothic novel by Philip Meadows-Taylor,” as well as Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone. (Thugs might also have been an intended element in Dickens’s unfinished final novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which features some Indian characters.) Blake and Avery begin to suspect there might be some sort of conspiracy afoot: it seems the English are deliberately encouraging, or even embroidering, the myth of the Thugs to maintain some order in the colony.
When Blake and Avery finally meet up with Mountstuart, he is – inevitably, for an idol – not everything Avery expected. “You should know that your hero’s books are compendiums of fabrication and falsity,” Blake warns him. And Mountstuart himself is scatterbrained, haughty, and as bad an opium addict as Thomas de Quincey ever was. All the same, he is an engaging character and provides some comic relief in the book’s mid-section.
I mustn’t reveal too much of the plot that follows – especially because Carter has already announced that a sequel, The Infidel Stain, is already in the pipeline, due in January 2015 (there was a taster of its first chapters at the end of my e-galley). However, I think it’s important to point out that there is too much dialogue, and far too many descriptive passages, for my liking. This means that the novel is slow to start and truly lags at some points thereafter. Only gradually does it become a fairly rip-roaring Victorian adventure story, in the vein of H. Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines. I did especially enjoy the fight scenes – though not one between Avery and a white tiger.
Unfortunately, Carter’s writing doesn’t quite live up to the great historical material she had at her disposal. The Strangler Vine reminds me most of Matthew Pearl’s The Last Dickens, with which it shares some plot elements. I would rate Carter’s novel on a par with the latter or with Lynn Shepherd’s Victorian mystery, The Solitary House. Ultimately, I wondered if her book might not have worked better as a third-person omniscient tale. This could have made it even more of a genuine Victorian pastiche, and might have made the historical background information a more seamless part of the plot, rather than shoehorned in through what Avery is able to learn or observe. As it is, the glossary and author’s note at the end of the book are almost more interesting than the novel that went before.
The Infidel Stain opens in London with a gruesome murder at a printing press, and then has Blake and Avery reuniting for another mission. I’m not sure I’ll keep up with their continuing story; I can only ever be bothered to read sequels when the characters are utterly irresistible, and I just didn’t find Carter’s Avery compelling enough as a narrator.
(This review originally appeared at Bookkaholic.)
February 22, 2018
This is a book that I liked much more in the reading (*****) than in the reviewing (***). It’s a historical novel of British colonial India, long on historical detail—its strength—which should appeal to readers who enjoy “thick” description. But it will likely try the patience of those in search of unencumbered, action packed, high adventure. Readers old enough to remember PBS’s “Jewel and the Crown” or the more recent “Indian Summers” should enjoy it, but more for the social-political-historical elements than the romantic side of things. (Its perfunctory romance was a bit lame, unconvincing, and left me exclaiming, “Huh?! Waitaminute!” toward the end.) Our naïve, young hero and first-person narrator, William Avery, who remains quite dim virtually until the end, can be positively exasperating. If you insist on liking or falling in love with main characters, you’d better give this book a pass. But, on the other hand, there were probably plenty of other young, 19th-century Englishmen transplanted to the Indian subcontinent who for the longest time continued, despite all evidence, to believe whole-heartedly in the noble character of England’s mission to India and in an English gentleman’s inability to go wrong (—just as any number of Americans still hold fast to their cherished view of King and Country, despite considerable evidence to the contrary, which could require a more nuanced view).
An aura of mystery surrounds the mission of this Odd Couple (the thoroughly Brrrritish Avery and Blake, older, wiser, and having gone native), who set off in search of a vanished, much admired author, perceived as some sort of “Voice of India.” I was often a bit confused about exactly what this operation was in aid of (but, on the other hand, so was young Avery.) As the going got tough and the outcome looked dark, I kept hoping that an Indian might be allowed to emerge as a good guy, to help sort things out and set things right, but natives scarcely appear in that sort of light. I WAS interested to learn the etymology of “thug,” which adds an interesting twist to recent objections to its continued use among politicians. Change a word or two, and occasional, clear-eyed pronouncements (by Blake, not Avery) still retain some ring of truth: “It’s an imaginary enemy, a false panic, and such things have consequences. It has reinforced every prejudice Europeans hold against the Hindoos. It makes it ever easier for Europeans to view them with disgust and misunderstanding, to deride and dismiss their customs and habits and to trumpet the superiority of their own.”
An aura of mystery surrounds the mission of this Odd Couple (the thoroughly Brrrritish Avery and Blake, older, wiser, and having gone native), who set off in search of a vanished, much admired author, perceived as some sort of “Voice of India.” I was often a bit confused about exactly what this operation was in aid of (but, on the other hand, so was young Avery.) As the going got tough and the outcome looked dark, I kept hoping that an Indian might be allowed to emerge as a good guy, to help sort things out and set things right, but natives scarcely appear in that sort of light. I WAS interested to learn the etymology of “thug,” which adds an interesting twist to recent objections to its continued use among politicians. Change a word or two, and occasional, clear-eyed pronouncements (by Blake, not Avery) still retain some ring of truth: “It’s an imaginary enemy, a false panic, and such things have consequences. It has reinforced every prejudice Europeans hold against the Hindoos. It makes it ever easier for Europeans to view them with disgust and misunderstanding, to deride and dismiss their customs and habits and to trumpet the superiority of their own.”
December 17, 2014
The Strangler Vine by M.J. Carter is a deeply atmospheric historical thriller set in early nineteenth century colonial India.
While trying to reveal the society in Calcutta, author Xavier Mountstuart disappears and an rather unlikely pair, both working for the East Indian Company, is set off to find him. Ensign William Avery keeps being passed over, and is growing impatient to join up with his regiment when he is to find Jeremiah Blake, a political agent who has also grown frustrated, but unlike William, Jeremiah is a genius at mastering languages and disguises, but has gone native. Jeremiah, while not loyal like William, deeply respects Xavier’s writings and soon he, along with a less than enthusiastic William, are going across India in search of Xavier who was rumored to be researching the extremely dangerous Thuggee cult. Carter takes the reader not only back in time, but also deep into India where both William and Jeremiah will discover many things about themselves and India that they had never given thought to. The Strangler Vine takes place between British occupation and the Raj, offering the reader a fascinating look at history, politically, and through every day citizens. Carter uses several terms and phrases that would have been commonplace during the time period, but many I had to look up, which did not deter from my enjoyment of not only the rich history and culture, but also the mystery. I would recommend this book to those who enjoy historical fiction.
While trying to reveal the society in Calcutta, author Xavier Mountstuart disappears and an rather unlikely pair, both working for the East Indian Company, is set off to find him. Ensign William Avery keeps being passed over, and is growing impatient to join up with his regiment when he is to find Jeremiah Blake, a political agent who has also grown frustrated, but unlike William, Jeremiah is a genius at mastering languages and disguises, but has gone native. Jeremiah, while not loyal like William, deeply respects Xavier’s writings and soon he, along with a less than enthusiastic William, are going across India in search of Xavier who was rumored to be researching the extremely dangerous Thuggee cult. Carter takes the reader not only back in time, but also deep into India where both William and Jeremiah will discover many things about themselves and India that they had never given thought to. The Strangler Vine takes place between British occupation and the Raj, offering the reader a fascinating look at history, politically, and through every day citizens. Carter uses several terms and phrases that would have been commonplace during the time period, but many I had to look up, which did not deter from my enjoyment of not only the rich history and culture, but also the mystery. I would recommend this book to those who enjoy historical fiction.
January 14, 2015
The author has created a very interesting picture of the East India Company and British Imperialism in India in the 1800s. I enjoyed the many details about the period and the politics of India at the time. The prologue was well written and frightening and made me want to find out what happened in this story.
Unfortunately the characters and the mystery that tie the story together weren't as well developed or captivating. The main protagonist is very naïve, so naïve he seems almost a puppy without a clue about the world. His reluctant companion's character swings in the opposite direction, neither character came to life for me.
The pacing was somewhat slow and the assignment the two men are given isn't particularly interesting. As they make their way toward their destination there is a fair amount of repetition with Jeremiah Blake communicating with the native people, telling William Avery to trust him and then discovering a little bit of information helpful to their mission.
About two thirds of the way through the book things get a little more interesting and the story picks up its pace. Even so the protagonist seems far too naïve to be believable.
I will say I did like the end of the book and where that brought the characters. Another reviewer mentioned that this is the first in a series and I would consider reading the next installment if it gets favorable reviews from others.
Thank you to the publisher G.P.Putnam's Sons and the amazon Vine Program for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
Unfortunately the characters and the mystery that tie the story together weren't as well developed or captivating. The main protagonist is very naïve, so naïve he seems almost a puppy without a clue about the world. His reluctant companion's character swings in the opposite direction, neither character came to life for me.
The pacing was somewhat slow and the assignment the two men are given isn't particularly interesting. As they make their way toward their destination there is a fair amount of repetition with Jeremiah Blake communicating with the native people, telling William Avery to trust him and then discovering a little bit of information helpful to their mission.
About two thirds of the way through the book things get a little more interesting and the story picks up its pace. Even so the protagonist seems far too naïve to be believable.
I will say I did like the end of the book and where that brought the characters. Another reviewer mentioned that this is the first in a series and I would consider reading the next installment if it gets favorable reviews from others.
Thank you to the publisher G.P.Putnam's Sons and the amazon Vine Program for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
November 17, 2014
Any book that has me counting how many pages remain in the same way I might count how many shirts are still to be ironed, can't really get more than 1 or 2 stars. I will give this 3 because the afterword confirms that many of the characters in the book and associated events are historically factual. Sadly, for me, this seemed more like a comic strip adventure that had gone on far too long than an eye-opening account of colonialism and power in India.
February 5, 2018
This one didn't end up being what I was expecting. I thought it would be more mystery and it was more historical fiction. Not a bad thing, but I just couldn't get into the highly detailed description of the settings. More character development, please.
May 18, 2019
Good descriptive writing about India, but the plot moves at a very slow pace. I skimmed alot of chapters after the half way mark. The "mystery" wasn't that interesting, either. Disappointing.
March 21, 2023
The Strangler Vine was published at the end of March, so this review comes a bit late, but I nonetheless wanted to give this book the praise it deserves. The Strangler Vine is an historical mystery that transcends its genre, offering insight into the period in which its set: late 1930s India.
India at this time was under the rule of the East India Company, a privately owned business that also served as government. The Company had its own army; it made and enforced laws across the territory it held. This was a time when, with the right amount of money, one could purchase an officer’s position in the British Army. Joining the East India Company’s army didn’t necessarily carry a price, but it helped to have the right connections. Many second (or third or fourth) sons chose to seek their fortunes in India, since family resources were traditionally devoted to ensuring the success of the eldest son.
The Strangler Vine‘s narrator, William Avory, is one such younger son. He’s arrived in India, but has not yet been assigned to a regiment and is running up debts, both for the necessities of daily life and because of his tendency to participate in, and then lose, card games. Avory is given a shot at redemption. He’s been ordered to accompany a renegade ex-officer, Jeremiah Blake, on a hunt for a missing poet/novelist, whose recent roman a clef has the British community in Calcutta in an uproar. The East India Company would like to return this writer to England before he can make any more trouble for them.
Blake is an odd character: a superb linguist and misanthrope with the rational powers of Sherlock Holmes, all embodied within a man who has abandoned much of British culture and adopted local practices. Avory, an idealist who’s bought the claims that the East India Company is in India for the Indians’ own good, has no idea how to deal with this brilliant, taciturn, and uncivilized man.
As Blake and Avory pursue their mission they encounter more mysteries than just the author’s disappearance. The author was reportedly researching a long, narrative poem focusing on the Thuggee band, a group said to kill in the name of Kali, then to rob their victims afterward. There are questions about the methods used to identify, prosecute, and punish Thugs. There are also questions about whether there are really any Thugs at all. One local ruler, said to harbor Thugs, faces an attempted assassination.
One can read this mystery novel as a mystery—but it also provides a fascinating look into the ethos of British colonial culture and its impacts upon the lives of the colonized. Several of the novel’s central characters are historical figures, and Carter provides useful biographical sketches of them in an afterword. Carter’s prose is engaging to read, and it’s made even more engaging by her choice of topic and period detail.
India at this time was under the rule of the East India Company, a privately owned business that also served as government. The Company had its own army; it made and enforced laws across the territory it held. This was a time when, with the right amount of money, one could purchase an officer’s position in the British Army. Joining the East India Company’s army didn’t necessarily carry a price, but it helped to have the right connections. Many second (or third or fourth) sons chose to seek their fortunes in India, since family resources were traditionally devoted to ensuring the success of the eldest son.
The Strangler Vine‘s narrator, William Avory, is one such younger son. He’s arrived in India, but has not yet been assigned to a regiment and is running up debts, both for the necessities of daily life and because of his tendency to participate in, and then lose, card games. Avory is given a shot at redemption. He’s been ordered to accompany a renegade ex-officer, Jeremiah Blake, on a hunt for a missing poet/novelist, whose recent roman a clef has the British community in Calcutta in an uproar. The East India Company would like to return this writer to England before he can make any more trouble for them.
Blake is an odd character: a superb linguist and misanthrope with the rational powers of Sherlock Holmes, all embodied within a man who has abandoned much of British culture and adopted local practices. Avory, an idealist who’s bought the claims that the East India Company is in India for the Indians’ own good, has no idea how to deal with this brilliant, taciturn, and uncivilized man.
As Blake and Avory pursue their mission they encounter more mysteries than just the author’s disappearance. The author was reportedly researching a long, narrative poem focusing on the Thuggee band, a group said to kill in the name of Kali, then to rob their victims afterward. There are questions about the methods used to identify, prosecute, and punish Thugs. There are also questions about whether there are really any Thugs at all. One local ruler, said to harbor Thugs, faces an attempted assassination.
One can read this mystery novel as a mystery—but it also provides a fascinating look into the ethos of British colonial culture and its impacts upon the lives of the colonized. Several of the novel’s central characters are historical figures, and Carter provides useful biographical sketches of them in an afterword. Carter’s prose is engaging to read, and it’s made even more engaging by her choice of topic and period detail.
March 26, 2017
After it got going this was a great tale of the British in India. Full of fairly bloody violence and with lots of commentary on the appalling attitudes of the time towards the Indian people. It is the first of the Avery and Blake mysteries so it spends quite a lot of time setting up the relationship between the two men. They start by being very antagonistic towards each other, I couldn't see how they were ever going to end up having a series written about the pair of them working together, given how badly they got along, but that is the thing, they don't get along because they are so opposite, but they have a successful time because of that very thing. The two of them are officers of the East India Company and are attempting to solve the mystery of the disappearance of a famous writer. He is assumed to be in the hands of a band of terrors called Thugs or Thugees, these were a real thing in India at the time and it is interesting to read about these people. (There is a wealth of information at the end of the book, but also some interesting images online). These guys are famous for their dastardly ways and indeed the encounters that Blake and Avery have with them are violent and lead them to believe that they are in mortal danger.
This book gives you an idea of what life was like in India before the revolution and the withdrawal of the British. The mystery itself is very slow moving but redeems itself by rollicking along in the second half of the book. An enjoyable read all in all.
This book gives you an idea of what life was like in India before the revolution and the withdrawal of the British. The mystery itself is very slow moving but redeems itself by rollicking along in the second half of the book. An enjoyable read all in all.
September 26, 2018
This book is a perfect work of historical fiction as well as being a perfect thriller/suspense novel. Although I obviously wasn’t around during the times of the East India Company and The heyday of the British empire, this book seems to capture the ideologies and overt and innate prejudices of the British without over-voicing condemnation in the narrative - rather giving it a journalistic, “just the facts” as ugly as they were description. Of course, different views are played out through the characters and expertly, I might add. Top it all off with an amazing action thriller and you have a uniquely perfect tale. Well done!
December 29, 2020
A master piece based on historical facts.
Loved the book
Loved the book
February 4, 2017
India of 1837 is richly realized in this debut mystery (the author's previous books were nonfiction) whose two main characters, William Avery and Jeremiah Blake, are as mismatched a duo as ever graced the pages of a historical novel. The characterization is good, and Carter demonstrates an appreciation for 19th century India that kept me reading. However, the story takes a couple of obvious turns and in general it felt less like a mystery and more like a straight-up historical fiction with some thrilling turns. Which probably just shows that my expectations were disappointed, but still.
I was wavering between three and four stars the whole way, but the ending pushed my rating down:
I'm interested enough in the pair to read the next book in the series, and Carter's descriptions of 19th-century Calcutta enthralled me.
I was wavering between three and four stars the whole way, but the ending pushed my rating down:
I'm interested enough in the pair to read the next book in the series, and Carter's descriptions of 19th-century Calcutta enthralled me.
October 26, 2015
A fascinating murder mystery full of murder, violence, human degradation, conspiracy, loyalty and friendship, set in 1837 India colonized by East India Company. Not only was the mystery and style of narration captivating but the detailed description of India during that era brought history to life. Having grown up with stories of Thugee culture, it was very interesting to read about the conspiracies that was deliberately nurtured about this creed of deadly assassins.
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