Review: "And that, my dears, is the story of how I acquired [my own brothel]."
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 31, 2012
I'm a bit ambivalent about heroine India Black.  She's snarky and a bit amoral but you can't help liking and admiring her anyway.  This little novella, a fun read, is a prequel to the first two India novels set in Victorian England,India Black (A Madam of Espionage Mystery)andIndia Black and the Widow of Windsor (A Madam of Espionage Mystery).  In those novels India is already established as madam of her very own brothel, after having worked a few years in another madam's establishment.  We don't get to learn much about India before her life as a prostitute but in this little novella we learn how she was able to become the independent owner of Lotus House, which caters to gentlemen, "no butchers, navvies or sailors (naval officers excepted, of course)".While working in Mother Moore's brothel, India becomes close to one of the clients, a Philip Barrett, upper-class gentleman of an impoverished family.  Philip has been forced to work in trade, as importer-exporter, and asks India to accompany him, pretending to be his wife, to the home of a rich American with whom Philip wants to do business.  So that's what she does and that's where the story takes off.  It's fun, told by India in her wry, cynical, snarky way, and, even though I had figured out the mystery before India told us everything, it was jolly good fun.Perhaps if I had not been familiar with India already, I would not have given this novella 5 stars, but for an India Black fan it's a must read.  Now we have to wait forIndia Black and the Shadows of Anarchy (A Madam of Espionage Mystery), coming February 2013.  It will be good to read another adventure with India and that handsome British spy French.