Harriet Gordon is a young English widow in 1910, earning money by typing the manuscript of a memoir written by elderly Sir Oswald Newbold. This gentleman lives alone, apart from servants, in picturesque Singapore. One day, Harriet finds the man and his house servant have both been killed. This sparks the case of the SINGAPORE SAPPHIRE.

The memoir notebook is missing, and the police, led by Inspector Robert Curran, lose no time in investigating. The scene is surprisingly modern, with a police photographer, fingerprinting, medical examiner and autopsy – done swiftly due to the tropical heat. Sir Oswald was the president of the Colonial Explorers and Geographers' Club in town. This could not be further from the life of former suffragette Harriet. She was widowed in India and came to live with her brother, the Reverend Julian Edwards, who is headmaster of an expat boys’ school in Singapore. They live simply and care for the young boys like family. 

This 1910 Singapore is a recreated tapestry for the historical mystery, and we hear as much about Burma, now Myanmar. Colonial powers including the British, Dutch and French, were vying to extract riches. A few British men discovered rubies in northern Burma, which underlies the whole story. This being the case, I had to conclude that the title gem, sapphire, was thrown in just for alliteration since Singapore Ruby would make more sense. Later books in the Harriet Gordon series similarly use alliterative gem titles.

While we see some of the local people, we don’t follow any of them, staying with Harriet and Inspector Curran. Mainly the colonists ate the local foods and drank spirits, but others ate more British fare and drank wines, though the heat and humidity would make keeping good wines more difficult. Some decent folks are present, and some thoroughly evil and selfish ones too. A.M. Stuart has not stinted on the description of sights, sounds and smells. The opening of a major bridge occupies our characters for a day, but the incessant rain and humidity when not raining dictate a lot of the action.  SINGAPORE SAPPHIRE is a fascinating period piece and I will be interested to follow Harriet’s later adventures.