Bengal Fire

One of the best of Blochman's work. The energetic Inspector Leonidas Prike solves a Calcutta case involving smuggling, murder, and a maharajah's missing jewels. Blochman deserves credit for ingenious, logical plotting and especially for the offhand, casual tone of his setting.
Persons this Mystery is about- Lee Marvin, tall redheaded, and clean-cut, came to India to buy gold for a famous jewelry firm. He clings o the romantic notion that a man should lie to protect a lady in distress. Evelyn Branch is a pretty blonde with gray-green eyes, travels halfway around the world to marry a man who has other plans. She is no babe in the woods in spite of her big eyes. Harrison J Hoyt who can be the most charmingly disagreeable person in Calcutta, is a press agent with his long, sharp nose always in other people's business. Antoinette Vrai is a small, bulbous, and violently female, is attractive in an obvious way, but her engagement to Hoyt baffles Lee. It isn't necessary to marry Antoinette. Jacques Vrai who is Antoinette's father, is a tight-lipped and unpleasant man with scaly skin. He runs the hotel at Chandernagore. With many more characters that get involved in this Mystery!**