The Trouble with Tigers
India, 1902. When Lilly Myerson is sent by her controlling husband, Royce, to the hill resort of Nainital to join her mother, Binnie, for the hottest part of the summer, she is reluctant to leave her five-year-old son, Teddy, behind. But away from Royce’s bullying, Lilly begins to rediscover who she really is and make friends, especially with brother and sister Noel and Conti Moore and their houseguest Duffy Putnam, a tiger tamer from Tiffert’s Circus. When her mother’s reckless actions put Lilly in danger from Royce’s vengeance, the circus seems the only place to hide—though right from the start Lilly knows it can only be a temporary solution to her problems…
This is a highly accomplished novel, peopled by complex characters, most of whom are hiding secrets about themselves. Even Royce avoids being a cardboard cut-out villain because it’s clear many of his problems stem from being mixed race and therefore repeatedly rejected by the white society into which he wants to integrate himself. The setting is vividly evoked, whether it is the closed British expat society in the Himalayas or the tumultuous life of the circus. There is a clever twist in the tale about three-quarters of the way through that made me want to reread the book and find what clues I had missed.
Only occasionally there are snatches of dialogue that feel a bit modern for the period, like Lilly describing her separation from Teddy as being ‘beyond hard’. The District Superintendent of Cawnpore should be addressed as Sir Penderel (first name) rather than as Sir Rivett-Moon (surname), and British people play draughts rather than checkers (the same game under a different name). But these are minor blips and didn’t detract from my thorough enjoyment of this novel.
