Cochin Fall (The Colonials)
In 1930s colonial India, the lives of women and girls are strictly monitored. Clara and Lizzie, two young women returning from several years in boarding school in England, are ready for romance but find their opportunities to get to know potential suitors are limited by their concerned parents and the constant presence of their ayahs, who act as both maids and chaperones. Clara believes herself in love with Lizzie’s brother George, her childhood sweetheart, while Lizzie has her eyes on Lewis Mackenzie, the handsome, but perhaps unsavory, assistant to Clara’s businessman father.
Harris evokes the sights and smells of the island of Cochin very effectively, and the snobbery and etiquette of the period and place are developed through her characters and events. As well as an interesting introduction to India between the wars, the story is an entertaining romance. Misunderstandings abound and as Clara fears George is not as passionate toward her as he might be, she fails to recognize that there are two other men in Cochin who are more than a little attracted to her. Moonlight assignations and a side plot about drug smuggling thicken the plot and keep the pages turning. Will Clara find the right husband, or will her family all suffer when her reputation is under threat?
This enjoyable novel is the second in a series of four standalone novels in Harris’s Colonial series.
