Book Review: The Cavaliers of Death by Rosita Forbes
Lois Gilmour is a pretty nineteen-year-old and ready to be a bit independent, so she is less than thrilled when her father Charles, a wealthy importer, has arranged her marriage to middle-aged Philip Wingate, a man with a sinister reputation. It’s especially irksome, as the year is 1930, not 1830. Time to blow off some steam at a masked ball.
At the ball, Lois meets a mysterious grey-eyed man in concealing robes, who promises that she will never marry Wingate, and may be a member of the “Cavaliers of Death” who operate in Syria. He may also be responsible for a murder at the party of a man no one claims to recognize.
Soon, Lois is enmeshed in the clashing schemes of Jim Rattiker (the grey-eyed man), Wingate, the Cavaliers, a devil-worshipping cult, and the true mastermind behind all the events.
Ms. Forbes was a travel writer who specialized in the Middle East, and there are some vivid passages of description once the action in this romantic adventure reaches Syria.
There’s also plenty of action, and a guest appearance by the last of the Romanovs. Naturally, Lois and Jim quickly fall in love, but his vow of celibacy and secretive nature keep them apart for most of the story.
Lois is a damsel in distress, somewhat improved by being the viewpoint character, but a little too prone to running directly towards danger rather than away from it due to her innocence. She’s often frustrated with the men in her life refusing to explain what’s going on, even when it directly affects her. (Most of them do so in an effort to “protect” her, yes, even the antagonists.) Especially the last third of the book’s danger to Lois could have been avoided if anyone had been straight with her earlier.
The biggest fault of the book to a modern reader is its outright libel of the Yazidi people, who have never had the habit of sacrificing white women to the Peacock Angel every full moon.
There are some fun twists, but a major character dies off-stage in an anticlimatic fashion, and the suspense must be made up in other ways.
Still, if you like romantic adventure and can look past the horribly untrue depiction of minority people, this is a rarity to seek out.
