Enemy of the Raj by Alec Marsh

 

Drabble and Harris are back in this, the second of Alec Marsh’s novels to feature the indomitable duo, and a sequel to his debut, Rule Britannia. It’s 1937 and our pair, Sir Percival Harris and Professor Ernest Drabble, are in India. The novel opens with the two on a tiger hunt, which is quite an opening for a story.

Rule Britannia was set against the backdrop of fascism in Britain in the 1930s and those who admired and wished to collaborate with Hitler. There was an element of speculative/counterfactual history to the plot, in that it imagined an attempted coup d’etat by fascist forces. In keeping with this flavour, Enemy of the Raj does something similar; set against the backdrop of the burgeoning independence movement in India, it isn’t long before our heroes find themselves embroiled in plots and conspiracies as needless to say, not everyone is happy with the idea of India freeing itself from the yolk of British rule.

Like the first novel in the series, Enemy of the Raj is well-plotted and the characterisation is strong, the two main characters a great contrast to each other. Drabble is intelligent and capable, he’s the action hero of the piece, while Harris is more than a little hapless.

As with the previous novel, the author has clearly done his research. This novel examines the history of India leading up to independence, and while this is not a heavy or political read, it is educational. Where Rule Britannia focused on the little known story of Cromwell’s head and what has happened to it down the years, Enemy of the Raj tells the remarkable story of Maharaja Ganga Singh, a man who the author rightly calls one of the lost giants of the twentieth century. This is a man who achieved much and led a really quite astonishing life and yet has been all but forgotten from history. His story is weaved through the plot of Enemy of the Raj to entertaining effect; hopefully, it will go some way to bringing Singh the recognition he deserves.

Enemy of the Raj is an entertaining novel and a worthy sequel to Drabble and Harris’s previous outing. I particularly like the author’s use of little known elements of history to illuminate the period and his use of speculative/counterfactual plot lines. I hope that he can think of something to equally good for the third in the series (I’m sure there’ll be a third outing for our part of unlikely heroes) and look forward to reading what they get up to next.

5 out of 5 stars