The Wild Child

Because I really enjoyed a couple of her recent books, I went back to read one of Mary Jo Putney's older titles The Wild Child (#9), published in 1998. Beautiful young heiress, mute since she was the sole survivor of a massacre in India, is to be visited by her suitor, the heir to an earldom, to finalize a match arranged by their parents when they were children.  One of her uncle guardians approves, the other does not think she is normal or capable of leading a normal life, so things must be wrapped up before said uncle returns from his European tour.  Young suitor has other plans and bribes his identical twin to take his place temporarily.  The girl is not in her right mind, so who will know?  You can see where this one is going right from the beginning, but again, the fun is in the journey to get there.  Some unexpected plot twists and turns to keep your interest throughout, not to mention menace to more than one lady.  Meriel, the main character, never leaves her estate, but her particular talent is for plants and the various gardens described make me wish there was an accompanying coffee table book.  Wish I could see the topiary garden!

It's funny, but the Indian subcontinent seems to be a recurring theme in the books I've read lately. There is Meriel's traumatic experience while traveling there with her parents and her subsequent captivity.  She's accompanied as a child back to England by a mysterious Indian bodyguard.  In Ms. Putney's latest series Loving A Lost Lord, her first book deals with a British Duke who is half Indian, and ostracized because of it.  Then there was A Passage To India by E.M. Forster, a book that my book club felt we ought to have read (and are glad we did!).  And finally there was Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, by Helen Simonson, which tells the tale of an unlikely cross-cultural relationship between a Pakistani widow who runs the local English village shop and the ever-so proper Major Pettigrew.  If you haven't read this one yet, do yourself a favor and get a copy of this novel.  It's Helen Simonson's first book, and I devoutly hope it's not her last.  If Jane Austen were alive today, she'd be telling this story. 

I've always dreamed of seeing India, but it's not high on my husband's list of places to go, so it's not very likely I'll ever see it in person, but one never knows.  The plus side is that you can always visit it in a book.  Maybe while I'm on this Indian roll, I should go back and dig up my copy of M. M. Kaye's The Far Pavilions.  That was a wonderful read...