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Read The Damascened Blade (2005)

The Damascened Blade (2005)

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Rating
3.77 of 5 Votes: 5
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ISBN
038533950X (ISBN13: 9780385339506)
Language
English
Publisher
delta

The Damascened Blade (2005) - Plot & Excerpts

The Great Game, the Khyber Pass, Pathan tribes, hot sun, dust, sudden death – the romance of the Northwest Frontier of India in the ‘20s – we must be reading another Barbara Cleverly Joe Sandilands mystery. We are, and this one is a humdinger.Once again Joe, vacationing with an old friend who is commander of a fort near the Afghan border, finds himself with a young woman on his hands, this time an American heiress who wants to see the “real” India. She gets her wish when she is kidnapped by a Pathan tribesman. How to get her back without setting off another border war?There is a murder, of course, but in this book it’s the adventure that matters. And the characters: the son of a tribal leader, a WW I British aviator looking for something to do with his planes, a bean counter who wants to close the frontier forts, the beautiful and very pregnant wife of a powerful man who will not be pleased if she dies in childbirth, a crusty old (female) doctor who is trusted by both sides. One of the gimmicks I like in a mystery is a prologue with some adventure that happened 20 years or so before the action of the main story. This novel has a scene in which a very young British soldier heads out alone to rescue a comrade and in the process acquires the titular damascened blade.Damascening, by the way, is the inlay of one metal into another, so named because it was thought to look like damask fabric, so named because it was thought to have originated in Damascus. A damascened blade is particularly beautiful.2011 No 74 Coming soon: Revolt! by Dick Morris

I found this, the third in the India series by Cleverly, more difficult to navigate at first. I kept thinking that it was not up to the first two novels. However, Cleverly comes through after she sets the historical context for the rest of the book, and it was her best to date. Sandilands is still in India -- and no mention as to why since her first novel indicates that he is "on loan" and about to return to England. Of course, Cleverly has to keep him in India because that is where the series is set. In the second novel this is explain as a vacation following the sleuthing in the first novel -- rather indicating that he would hang on for some leisure time. Here, in the third of the series, he is in Peshawar and still at the beck and call of Sir George Jardine who seems to be "running the show." He is visiting on the Northwest frontier in a remote British outpost. Little inconsistencies appear to leave some loose ends -- but they hardly take away from the overall plots. I like the way Cleverly sets the stage for an understanding of the tribal culture, the problems of British control of India, the excitement of living on the edge, and the complexity of her plot. It is definitely a good read.

What do You think about The Damascened Blade (2005)?

A mystery set in northwest India, near Afghanistan, when Cleverly's detective hero Joe Sandilands is escorting a lively American heiress who wants to see something more exciting than the staid British enclaves she has been to up until now. She gets her wish as murder and kidnapping liven her visit considerably, pitching Joe into the middle of an international incident that could result in war with the uneasy Afghan tribes. Not my favorite of the four Indian Sandilands books, but still an interesting view of the time (1921) and the situation, and there's a great deal of relevance to the contemporary period!
—Tamora Pierce

In the shadow of Khyber Pass an unusual gathering descends on a military outpost manned by a brigade of Royal Scots Fusiliers; a young American heiress, a British industrialist, a woman doctor and the son of the most powerful warlord in the region. An uneasy truce between Britain Empire of India and the Afghan tribes is threatened by an unexplained and violent death. Russia, Afghanistan, Great Britain and America are all vying for control of this northern frontier in 1922 as they have been for the 20th Century. This book is not as well written as her first Sandilands; there is perhaps too hard an attempt to imbue the American heiress with a gritty mid-western self-reliance and the wealthy industrialist doesn't fare much better than "Yup. That's about what I'd expect." That said, this book is a haunting look at a region of our world where powerful tribal law and loyalty demand exacting adherence to long-lived codes of honor and duty.
—Val Sanford

More like 3 1/2. The plot got really bogged down in the middle part, if not for that it would have earn 4 stars. The women characters were really well done. From Betty, the officer's wife, competent and bright (pregnant too) to Grace, the elderly doctor on a mission to Lily, the young American free spirit. Even secondary women characters with only cameo, I'm thinking about the Australian gypsy and the young chief's wife were bright lights in this novel. It's rare that you get so many strong, competent, smart female characters all at once. Now the story, this is the British Indian and what is now Pakistan frontier in the 1920's. Tribal wars, feuds, grudges and revenge. We join Joe Sandilands, Cleverly's hero, in his next adventure. A fort at the edge of the wilderness, a dead visitor that has the potential to bring out full out tribal war. A list of suspect to death that may or may not be murder. The overall idea is good, the resolution is good, it's the execution that brings down the pace. There are secondary characters that we don't need to know so much about. I'm thinking of the British Air Force officer or the Delhi bureaucrat. They have their role to play into the plot but too much time was spend on their background. Unless Cleverly plans on bringing them back.So good characters, good plot overall but slow pace.
—Writerlibrarian

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