DISHONORED

India, 1857: Colonel Reginald Mills, a commander of the British occupying forces, loses his beloved wife to the savagery of revolution. Outraged and grieving, and suspecting the involvement of the wealthy Rai family, he imprisons both Indrajit Rai and his son Jagat. Indrajit dies a broken man in a desolate jail cell, but the seventeen-year-old Jagat escapes. Leaving behind a shattered family and a plundered fortune that was his birthright, he vows revenge on the Mills name.
Phillip Mills returns to India a century later, mirroring his grandfather's views, holding Indians of every caste beneath contempt. He sees his bride as a necessary ornament needed to further his career and his mistress as a means to satisfy his voracious carnal needs, regardless of the emotional price she might pay.
Jane Mills, Phillip's bride, has resigned herself to a loveless marriage and manages to find some happiness capturing the lush beauty of her new home in her art. Then, after a shocking revelation, she turns to the only man who can comfort her, a kindred soul whose love is forbidden - and whose passion stirs in her a desire so sweet she is powerless to fight it.
Rami Rai is a poet torn by the demands of his family and the longings of his heart. Introspective and ever faithful to India and its people, he cannot reconcile himself to ancient decrees and blood feuds - and will be forced to choose between hallowed tradition and the woman he loves.
And decades later in London, Indi Mills will embark on a quest to uncover the murky layers shrouding her past, only to encounter violence and treachery at every turn. For her very existence sparks a resurgence of hatred and awakens long-dormant memories.
From the passion of a stolen kiss in a perfumed tropical garden to the anguish of a young woman seeking her elusive heritage, DISHONORED plumbs our deepest emotions and wrestles with heart-wrenching choices. Here is an epic tale of human nature at its best and worst - and its eternal struggle between good and evil, love and hate, destruction and redemption.

Set in England and India, British writer Barrett's third novel, a melodramatic tale of a vendetta spanning several generations, is her debut on these shores. In 1857, arrogant Colonel Reginald Mills, enraged when his wife is killed in an anti-colonialist Indian riot, mistakenly blames one family in particular for her death. Jeweler Indrajit Rai and his son Jagat are both imprisoned; the family's house is ransacked by British troops; the father dies in jail; Jagat escapes and vows to avenge these outrages. The narrative next jumps to swinging mid-1960s London?evoked with lush nostalgia and steamy prose?where the colonel's great-grandson, Major Phillip Mills, an opportunistic lecher, woos sensible art teacher Jane Bennet while carrying on with his unstable, obsessively jealous mistress, Suzanna Harvey, who's married to a ruthless, murderous, ambitious homosexual politician. Phillip takes a post in India, where his bride, Jane, has an affair with Ramesh Rai, Oxford-educated scion of the wronged Indian family still seeking revenge. Jane dies giving birth to Ramesh's daughter, Indu, who is raised in England by her grandfather. Knowing she's half-Indian, but deceived about the manner of her parents' death and unaware of the oath of vengeance, Indu is lured back to India in 1989, where cryptic verses, hidden treasure and murderous thugs complicate the path to true love. Barrett is a more than competent writer who spins a brisk, involving but not terribly credible story.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gaudy saga of revenge and lust, spanning a century of British- Indian relations. Puzzle-boxlike in its complexity, British writer Barrett's story of three families scarred by the maniacal hand of vengeance begins in the India of 1857 when a native revolt leads to a massacre of British civilians and is in turn followed by the brutal retaliation of Colonel Reginald Mills, driven mad by the sight of his dismembered wife. In his blind rage, the Colonel kills Indrajit Rai, master jeweler to a maharajah, and ruins the rest of Rai's family. He also steals a small, jewel-encrusted bird, one of a pair. The escaped son of the dead jeweler vows revenge, taking the other jeweled bird, and so the plot begins to spin . . . and spin . . . until it ends up in London in the 1960s. There, we are introduced to the latest Mills heir, a good-looking gadabout with a married girlfriend (her husband is a brutal, class-climbing homosexual) and an eye to a royal appointment. To secure the coveted post, Philip Mills needs a wife, and he finds the perfect match in kind, sensible Jane Bennett. The young couple head to India to finish Philip's tour of diplomatic duty, though passionless Philip, with his chilly demeanor and unflagging racism, sets Jane's eye wandering in the direction of the dreamy Rami Rai, who is (you guessed it), a descendant of Indrajit. Forbidden love, a flight through the mountains, various attempts at revenge, and sundry murders all follow. There's even a stopover in a leper colony before we're hurtled back to London in the '80s, and into the life of Jane and Rami's love child, Indi. Indi then encounters more of the above plus a coded map that leads to the maharajah's missing jewels. Pulp fiction at its pinnacle: ridiculous, convoluted, artificial, possessed of a kind of faux steaminess, but, withal, undeniably energetic. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Barrett makes her American debut in this novel of a vendetta that lasts more than 100 years and spans two continents. Begun during a brutal uprising in India when a British officer retaliates for the murder of his wife, the vendetta is resurrected in the 1960s when descendants of both families are brought together again by fate. Blind to everything but his hatred for the Mills family, Shiva Rai uses grandson Rami and Jane, the innocent wife of Phillip Mills, as weapons for his vengeance. Although he succeeds, he destroys Rami and Jane. A generation later, young Indu is endangered by these past hatreds, about which she knows nothing. She must search for the truth in order to save her life and end the vendetta forever. Although the characters in this novel are often two-dimensional and the ending seems rushed and confused, the story is entertaining and will appeal to fans of generational sagas. For large fiction collections.?Barbara E. Kemp, SUNY at Albany Libs.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.