The Strangler Vine, Carter - B +

                                               This delightful novel is set in Calcutta in 1837. Ensign William Avery is selected  to accompany Jeremiah Blake, a former officer of the British East India Company, on a trip to the far north. Their mission is to find Xavier Mountstuart, a writer very unpopular with  the establishment.  The journey provides a wealth of information and background on the castes of the Hindus, the Muslims,  the vast and various political  departments in India, and most interestingly, the Thuggee's, native assassins .  The party lingers at Jubulpore, the town from which the British battled the Thuggee terrorists under the firm hand of Major Sleeman.  As they progress deeper into the country, Avery starts to listen to and appreciate Blake's skepticism about the good being done in the country by the Company. They find Mountstuart when they are imprisoned with him. Mountstuart tells them that the Thuggees are a fiction of Sleeman's imagination, fabricated for the purpose of justifying the vast command Sleeman has constructed. Indeed, Mountstuart was sent by the Governor-general to investigate the Thuggee department. They manage to escape and then are betrayed by a British officer as the plot continues to thicken. Mountstuart is killed and Blake and Avery escape.  The powers that be eventually acknowledge that the Company  benefits from the Thuggee myth and that Avery and Blake are forbidden to disclose the truth. Blake goes to London. Avery accepts a promotion in exchange for silence. This book is a fine example of historical fiction. It delves deeply into the daily details of the British East India occupation and management of India, utilizes many real characters and brings the inquisitive reader into close touch with the time and place.