The dark horse

The dark horse of this touching and exciting novel is Dark Invader, a magnificent thoroughbred sold cheaply and exiled from England to race in Calcutta in the early 1930s. Almost all of the people around him—Levantine, his new millionaire owner; his trainer, John Quillan, an ex-cavalry officer with a beautiful but ostracized Eurasian wife; their children, known as the Bandar Log after Kipling's monkey tribe; and above all Ted Mullins, the doting middle-aged stable lad who brought him out of England—are, like himself, "outsiders" in one way or another.

Overlooking the racecourse is a convent of courageous nuns led by Mother Morag, who works day and night to help the city's poorest of the poor, but who also has a sharp eye for both racehorses and miracles. The dark horse becomes a favorite to win the prestigious Viceroy's Cup, but then, three days before the race, disaster strikes in the form of a whip-heavy and mean-spirited jockey. A mystery ensues, and it is Mother Morag who holds the key and knows how to turn it.

With its remarkable cast of characters, its vivid evocation of India in the last days of the Raj, and its simple but powerful story, The Dark Horse is a wonderful short novel—and more: the story is true. It happened in Calcutta some fifty years ago.