Detective Diana

Peril at the Exposition by Nev March. Published in 2022 by Minotaur Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Publishing Group, 120 Broadway, New York, 10271; website: www.minotaurbooks.com. Pp: 344. Price: US $ 27.99, Can $ 36.99.

In Peril at the Exposition Nev March (pictured) shifts the scene from Bombay, where she had set her first novel Murder in Old Bombay, to Chicago where the World’s Fair was held in 1893. In her Author’s Note she outlines the historical events which framed her novel. Chicago had just recovered from the great fire which took place 20 years earlier and almost half the population of USA attended the Fair. Electricity played the most important role as it was expected to change life both in homes and in industry. How this event must have stimulated the imagination of the people! It "offered a breathtaking vision of what our world could be.” However, there was another, lesser known, event which fired the imagination of March: a meeting of the World Congress of Anarchists which was held during the summer of that year. This engendered the idea of having her protagonist, Captain Jim, stumble on an anarchist plot to wreak pandemonium by the use of explosives at the Fair.
Jim and his Parsi wife, Diana, are settled in Boston where Jim is working as a detective with the Dupree Agency. On the evening of March 25, 1893 he informs his wife that he has to travel to Chicago on very urgent and highly confidential business. The Dupree Agency had sent Arnold Baldwin to Chicago to investigate the murder of Thomas Grewe, a security guard, but Baldwin himself was strangled at the waterside. As a result, Jim is asked to step in. From the very first scene, March establishes the intimate and loving relationship between husband and wife, so it is no surprise that Diana is very agitated when no news of him is received for five weeks. To make matters worse, Diana has an unexpected visitor who brings with him a letter in German which Jim had asked him to translate. She recognizes the use of the word "ballistite” in the letter which she knows is a dangerous explosive. At this point she realizes that there is no alternative but to follow Jim to Chicago.
March shows that Diana can be very firm and forceful as we see in her meeting with the Duprees, father and son. She is not intimidated by them and comes straight to the point asking them where her husband is and whether it is normal for operatives to remain silent for five weeks. She convinces them to appoint her as an "operative” and send her to Chicago accompanied by Tobias Brown, a colored porter, to find Jim.
In Diana, March produces a well-rounded and interesting character. Though she is a feisty woman, the author reminds us that Diana comes from a well-heeled Parsi family and, having lived a sheltered life in Bombay, she is rather innocent. March creates much humor in describing incidents where she displays Diana’s lack of knowledge of American slang. Diana is unaware that the word "fast” can also mean "immoral.” When she asks a young boy to help her to find Jim, he suspects her motives and asks her if she is "on the turf.” She has no idea what he is referring to. Hearing him say "whatyano” (what do you know), she thinks his name is "Wadja.” She asks for a "loo” or a "convenience” as she does not know the American term.
But the author makes it amply clear that Diana has a very good heart. Even though Wadja attempts unsuccessfully to rob her, she has no hesitation in mending his trousers. Her kindness is also evident when she gives most of her savings to her Chinese neighbors, Pia and Xi, to help them start a business to manufacture and sell bread.
Sometimes it is not clear whether Diana is naive or just does not want to face the truth. She employs Abigail as a lady’s maid and continues to believe her even though "she didn’t know to brush out the ends of my hair first, then work upwards.” When Abigail tells her that she was an actress, Diana realizes that Abigail does not have the requirements of an actress: she is not pretty, her face is long and her forehead bony; yet, she unquestioningly accepts what the maid tells her.
One of the sub themes of the novel is racism. Though formal segregation of the races began to break down in Chicago in the 1870s and school segregation ended in 1874, the blacks were still being discriminated against. March draws our attention to the fact that though Diana and Tobias Brown were travelling together, the latter would have to "ride in the colored coach.” She also introduces a powerful scene where Diana unwittingly sends Tobias to fetch her some tea and he is severely beaten up, subjected to "savage blows” and punches in the midst of a cheering crowd.
March also deplores the economic divide between the rich and the poor. If the Chicago World’s Fair provided a great many jobs to the unemployed, unscrupulous employers were quick to make a fast buck by taking advantage of the manual laborers. On the one hand, March describes the unemployment, the discontent amongst the trade unions, wealthy and powerful people taking advantage of the poor and helpless and forcing them into unfair and one-sided mine deals. On the other side, she presents the upper crust of society with the expensive hotels, opulent parties and well-dressed glitterati.
In her attempts to assist Jim, Diana seems to hinder more than help. She certainly jeopardizes the life of Tobias. It is only too late that she realizes, "I’d sent Tobias into danger without giving him a choice.” At 344 pages the novel is a tad too long with several plots and subplots and the canvas crowded with minor characters which overwhelms the reader and tends to reduce the suspense of the plot. The novel seems to lose focus and one misses the thrill of Murder in Old Bombay. FIRDAUS GANDAVIA

Gandavia holds a doctorate in English literature and is a retired chartered accountant. He is a compulsive reader of fiction.