Bijapur: Blood of the Goddess

Dalkey skillfully combines political, historical and herbal intrigues in this richly rewarding middle volume (after Goa) of her fantasy trilogy set in 16th-century India. Already damaged by the Inquisitors' strappado, youthful herbalist Thomas Chinnery travels further from his beloved England and deeper into the dangerous jungles of India as he searches for the source of the rasa mahadevi, a miraculous powder that can be used to raise the dead. The Inquisition desires the powder to prolong the lives of heretics--allowing them ample time to confess their sins--while others want it to curry favor, or for their own nefarious schemes. Chinnery finds himself trapped in a foreign land, pawn of many factions, and feels his only hope for survival lies in the hands of the Goddess's adopted daughter, Aditi. This beautiful Indian woman loves Chinnery but plans to murder him, since his death will derail the venal expedition to her mother's temple. Dalkey's locales are superb and her India is filled with peril and wonderment. While the plot is more notable for its elaborate political intrigues and philosophical debates than for action, the interactions between Dalkey's characters are fascinating and the tale is vastly entertaining. (May)