Book Title: THE ENIGMATIC MADAM INGRAM
Character Name: Letty Ingram
How would you describe your family or your childhood?
I... don't remember a lot. I'm sorry. My memory is always full of fog, somehow.
I remember images. When I was a little girl, Mama and Papa used to have these parties in London. They were so hot and crowded. Mama was very famous, you see. She is from Malaya, and so beautiful - so beautiful, and magical. There were rumors that she could... do certain things, make certain kinds of medicines, especially for women. But I don't know much about that.
Later we moved to Scotland, and we lived in the highlands, in an old manor house. Mama stayed in the house and tended to her hothouse, which was full of mango trees and hibiscus shrubs and all sorts of amazing things. But she never came into town with Papa and I. There were rumors, you know...that she could... wait, I have already told you.
I think I had a sister. I think I had a... a dog. Why can't I remember?
What was your greatest talent?
A talent? I don't know - I think I could dance. Or was that someone else?
Mama always said I was magical. But I don't feel magical. I do get angry, sometimes, and I feel like a great dark cloud comes over me. I wake up somewhere else, and I don't remember how I got there.
Significant other?
I... think I had a dog? He was very large and very shaggy. Someone gave him to me. I got lost as a li le girl, but it was because I was following this li le black puppy. I didn't know he was different. He took me on the strangest paths, that wound in impossible ways, but I was a little girl and didn't understand.
We came out at the other end, and there was a strange lady with red hair, standing by a stone gateway. She was very surprised to see me, and she was very kind. She came to meet Mama, and after that, she said she would leave Gytrash with me to guard me.
Gytrash! That was my dog's name. I remember now.
Oh, I have a husband. He lives in Singapore now, but he isn't important.
Biggest challenge in relationships?
Well, they call me Mad Letty, in the village. They think I don't know. They call me the Madwoman of the Moors, say that I wander about at night with my great demon dog and curse travelers on the road.
It didn't stop one man, though. I don't like him very much, but I suppose that is a relationship. I made him useful.
Where do you live?
I used to live in Scotland, but I have come to Singapore to look for someone to help me. My husband is here, and I put up in his house, but most of the me I am with the Kays. Do you know them? There are two lovely sisters, Yeling and Yezi, and their father, Mr. Kay. They have the third eye - they can see ghosts. They can see something is wrong with me, and they believe me when I say I am cursed. They will help me.
Do you have any enemies?
I am sure Mama loves me. But she is dangerous. I know she is.
How do you feel about the place where you are now? Is there something you are particularly attached to, or particularly repelled by, in this place?
I feel like I know this place I've come to. I don't think Mama came from Singapore, precisely, but it feels like I belong here.
One of the Kay sisters gave me a kebaya, and I am wearing it now instead of my black mourning dress. I walk the streets and go into the temples, and people think I belong there. I open my mouth and somehow I find I can answer their greetings in Malay. I eat kuih salat and ondeh-ondeh and it's as if I remember the taste of them, although I surely have never been here. Yet I have? It just... feels right.
Do you have children, pets, both, or neither?
I have a dog. I had a dog. I said his name just now, didn't I? It was... what happened to Gytrash? I wish I could remember.
What do you do for a living?
Papa made money in shipping. His ships never sank, his cargo never spoiled, and pirates were too afraid to rob him, so he was very successful. Now my parents are... gone... I have... enough to live on. I don't want it, I cannot stand it, but one must live.
Greatest disappointment?
The truth. I am learning it now.
Greatest source of joy?
I have a dog. His name is Gytrash. He is my dearest friend.
What do you do to entertain yourself or have fun?
Gytrash and I go for long walks on the moor. Sometimes I also weave. Mama le behind her kek tenun, where she used to weave beautiful cloth. I still use it.
What is your greatest personal failing, in your view?
I cannot remember. I think I may have killed someone.
What keeps you awake at night?
Well I don't know when I am awake at night. I go to bed, and I wake up somewhere else, and there is... all this blood...
I think I may have killed someone, but Mama said...
What is the most pressing problem you have at the moment?
I have to find a way to break this curse. I came all the way across the sea to find the famous medium, Madam Kay. She and her family will help me. And their friend, Miss Cassidy.
I feel like... like I know Miss Cassidy. I wish I could remember.
Is there something that you need or want that you don’t have? For yourself or for someone important to you?
All I want is to be free. And I want to remember. I want to know!
Why don’t you have it? What is in the way?
I do not know what my curse is, what causes it. I don't know why I am, what I am made of, what my Mama's magic made me do. I have forgotten so much, and I don't know why.
But I will find out. And I will be free.
Miss Cassidy #2
A Novel
Miss Cassidy returns to nineteenth-century Singapore to help solve another dazzling supernatural mystery in this follow-up to the award-winning novel that The Guardian called a “classic-in-waiting.”
When Letty Ingram arrives in Singapore in 1906, she is an enigma even unto herself. To the residents of the small Scottish village where she lives, she is a wealthy, half-Malay recluse who emerges from her home only for walks with her great beast of a hound. To Letty, she is a woman trying to lift a curse that causes her lose consciousness and wake up in strange places—sometimes, with blood on her hands—and no memory of what occurred.
Letty has traveled across the world in hopes that the renowned medium Madam Kay can help her break the curse, but Letty is a mystery of tangled magics the likes of which Madam Kay and the rest of her supernaturally gifted family have never seen. Fortunately, the Kays know an expert with even more insight into otherworldly matters than they do: the formidable Miss Leda Cassidy.
But even Miss Cassidy finds Letty to be a puzzle, one that pulls a fog over her memories as well. As she dives deeper into Letty’s past and find it unexpectedly intertwined with her own, Miss Cassidy begins to realize that if she’s going to free Letty from her curse, she’s going to have to take on an ancient foe: the terrifying jungle spirit known as the Bungadarah.
Mystery Historical | Mystery Paranormal [ Harper Perennial, On Sale: September 8, 2026, Trade Paperback / e-Book / audiobook, ISBN: 9780063508941 / eISBN: 9780063508958 ]
Meihan Boey is the author of the novels The Formidable Miss Cassidy, which was the co-winner of the 2021 Epigram Books Fiction Prize and winner of the 2022 Singapore Book Award for Best Literary Work; and The Enigmatic Madam Ingram, a finalist for the 2023 Epigram Books Fiction Prize; as well as the science fiction novella The Messiah Virus. She is also the vice president of the Association of Comic Artists of Singapore and has scripted several comics, including Supacross and The Once and Marvellous DKD. She is a dedicated comic book and manga fan, an enthusiastic gamer, a persistent triathlete, and not yet a Super Saiyan, though she keeps trying.
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