Bombay Mail, The Inspector Prike Mysteries

“Death and fast action take place on the crack Trans-Indian Express . . . Inspector Prike . . . encounters rubies, secretaries, cobras, priests, spies.” —Time

The assassination of the Governor of Bengal propels a Golden Age mystery that introduces readers to shrewd British CID Insp. Leonidas Prike. Set on a train from Calcutta to Bombay, Lawrence G. Blochman’s debut novel races through the Indian landscape, giving Inspector Prike twenty-seven hours to pin down a killer from a colorful mix of suspects, including a drunken news photographer, an intrepid American miner, a woman with dual identities, an Italian acrobat, a Maharajah, and a plumbing fixtures salesman, among other passengers . . .

After the governor, Sir Anthony Daniels, goes missing from his private car, Inspector Prike hops on the train at the next stop, bringing his calm efficiency and photographic mind to the case. He soon finds the governor in someone else’s compartment—dead from cyanide poisoning. The suspects include everyone in the adjoining cars, all traveling with secrets ranging from hidden gems to clandestine love affairs and radical political agendas. Danger rides the rails as someone with nothing left to lose sits trapped among the innocent, until Prike follows a trail of clues to the end of the line . . .

“A break-neck narrative . . . a non-stop thriller.” —Spectator