Saturday, July 19, 2025

Agony in Amethyst by A. M. Stuart unfolds an exciting mystery in 1911 Singapore

This fifth and last volume in the Harriet Gordon series, set in colonial Singapore in 1911, is the most excitingly constructed mystery I’ve read for some time. The title refers to the shocking death of a fifteen-year-old girl who sang at a ball at Government House held to celebrate the arrival of the new Secretary of State for the Colonies, Henry Cunningham. Her body, oddly clad in an ill-fitting amethyst dress rather than her school uniform, had clearly fallen from the gallery windows above, and signs point to murder.

Harriet Gordon, quickly on the scene in her gray evening gown, is a doctor’s widow and teacher with a controversial past as a London suffragette. Her beau, Robert Curran of the Straits Settlements Police Force, has recently returned from extended business in Kuala Lumpur only to lose a promotion to his former Scotland Yard rival.

Even worse, Cunningham’s presence in the country irritates Curran, since they were both associated with a case back in Britain which Curran was forced to abandon. Solving the present crime takes a two-pronged approach, both amateur (Harriet) and professional (Curran), which heightens tension when they’re not working in sync. As they investigate, their planned future gets complicated by secrets and betrayal.

Stuart continues adding new angles to the mystery while keeping tight control of the impeccably paced plot and its many players—I never felt lost. Harriet and Curran are well-rounded individuals with realistic flaws and a strong sense of integrity. The blend of cultures in Singapore is primarily background detail, with the focus being life and political administration in the British colony. There are a few apparent spoilers for previous events, as some characters are working through fallout from earlier books, but the author succeeds in weaving in sufficient backstory to make this novel stand alone.

Agony in Amethyst was published by Oportet Publishing in 2024; I reviewed it for the Historical Novels Review initially.  The first three books in the series, beginning with Singapore Sapphire, were published by Berkley/Penguin Random House, and the author moved to her own imprint for the last two books.

I haven't read others in the series yet, but plan to do so, once enough time has passed so the plot of this latest one isn't so fresh in my mind!  The author, who is Australian, also writes as Alison Stuart. According to her newsletter, she'll be continuing the story of Harriet and Curran, starting with a novella sometime later this year.

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