Singapore is once more the setting for the inquisitive shorthand typist for the Detective Branch, Harriet Gordon. As an extremely respectable widow, Harriet lives quietly with her missionary brother Julian Edwards and their young ward. They are about to be mixed up with REVENGE IN RUBIES. Which, I have to say, does not sound the least respectable.

Inspector Curran is called upon to investigate a murder at Blenheim Barracks. Officers live in sumptuous quarters, and one young bride is found dead - severely battered in her bedroom. Harriet had befriended her upon her arrival in Singapore. Sylvie Nolan had been two decades younger than her husband, Lieutenant Colonel John Nolan, of the South Sussex (fictional) regiment.

The circumstances of the tale cause Curran to interview many military men from senior officers to batmen, and Harriet is deputed to gossip with wives, daughters and sisters, at funerals, the tennis club social events and houses. For instance, Lt. Col. Nolan has an unmarried sister living with him – did she resent losing her position as head of the domestic household? Had the young wife ever struck up a familiarity with any of the other officers? Were all the men really out getting drunk in the mess every night, or did some have liaisons? With references to a previous generation who served in South Africa, a war filled with atrocities against combatants and civilians alike, and the military policemen declaring that they should be investigating, not the civilian police, the lines can get tangled. The life seems suffocating for an army not actually at war.

A dark past of Harriet’s surfaces, as some brave suffragists invite her to join them for a protest. Oh, but she was jailed in England for such protests and hopes to keep it quiet. She supports their aims but can’t participate. Anyway, with an eventual three murders on their plates, Harriet and Curran have quite enough work. And they haven’t found the ruby earrings Sylvie Nolan was last seen wearing, before she was killed.

A.M. Stuart paints a detailed historical portrait of Singapore in REVENGE IN RUBIES. We see that watercolour paintings don’t last in the hot damp climate, and carved tropical wood or metal makes for good ornaments. Unfortunately, such items also make good blunt instruments. The army-heavy installment of the Harriet and Curran mystery series won’t appeal to every reader but should delight anyone interested in what it was like to serve in the tropics before the First World War.