Ryman lovingly describes the sights, sounds and colors of India: the carpeted jade of the luscious grasslands, a sky of luminous rainbows, the swift whoosh of the blue-breasted kingfisher and the chittering antics of troupes of monkeys. "The Veil of Illusion" picks up the story 13 years later in Calcutta, with Olivia still seeking the truth about Jai's disappearance. Ryman gives a precise description of these important incidents from her earlier book at the start of the sequel. Jai was rumored to have been executed by the British for his role in the rebellion. Then in Cawnpore, in 1857, the notorious Bibighar massacre took place, a native uprising in which 200 European women and children were murdered. Jai went on to build a shipping business that competed directly with British companies and beat them at their own game - resulting in an even more explosive situation. Jai Raventhorne, a fiercely magnetic but bitter half-caste, snubbed the British by marrying a white American, Olivia. In "Olivia and Jai," her earlier novel about the British in 19th-century India, Rebecca Ryman made it very clear that it does not pay to go against the accepted behavior under the crown. THE VEIL OF ILLUSION By Rebecca Ryman St.
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