Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

This is the third book in the series. This could be read as a stand-alone but would be better if you had read the other books first.

It's the first book I read in this series and it was amazing.
It was liked travelling in space and time to a past Singapore, learning about a piece of the city story and the way of living.
The book is entertaining and engrossing. I liked the characters, the well researched setting and the plot.
It was a good mystery and it kept me guessing till the end.
I look forward to reading other books in this series.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

I know next to nothing about the history of Singapore, having visited it only fleetingly for one week years ago. This book has made me very interested in the foundations of it all. This is a third book in the series and although I think I would have been at an advantage if I had knowledge of the previous two, I was amply supplied with all the previous situations. I now live in Hong Kong and am studying Cantonese (or trying to, at this stage it is only the spoken part), and seeing a familiar word here and there as well as the heavy Indian quotient in the book felt rewarding. I think this will evoke similar responses even if people have a passing curiosity about the Asian regions during the war times. This story is based in India's Pre Independence era. There is a lot of influence that the actions of the people fighting for freedom in India seem to have on this island nation.

Su Lin(our leading lady) is a highly connected woman but tries to maintain a low profile while actively engaging her intelligence. At the start of this tale, she has been replaced at her own job but is back on location to help. She is an efficient cog in the detective machine investigating the sudden death of one of their own officials. One thing leads to another and a few dead bodies, a lot of theories and fear of 'Indians' starts up in the local British higher-ups. It is a very immersive experience and considering that this is the history of the author's own country, there is bound to be a lot of facts accurately represented. I liked it more for the socio-political commentary than the mystery which was not bad either. It was tied up in the above-mentioned commentary as well. I highly recommend this to all those people who like their mysteries/historical fiction to hold a lot of information about little known times and places. 

P.S The Paperbark tree (mentioned in the title) is in abundance around the city where I live and I have a strange fondness for them, now having read (however indirectly) about all their plus points, I feel more in awe of them even if I saw them as mere spectators in this tale.

This is the 3rd book in the Crown Colony series. It's set in 1930s Singapore, a British colony then. Politically unstable & hard times.
I love this book as a historical fiction AND a thriller. There's a mystery in it which makes you turn the pages wondering what will happen. But, also Yu handles the historical period very well and portrays the realities of the times. British colonisation, racism, how Singapore was affected is really fascinating to read.
If you're a historical fiction fan, mystery is an added bonus. This book is very good!
Thanks a lot Netgalley and the publisher for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is the 3rd in the Crown Colony series by Ovidia Yu set in the melting pot that is 1930s Singapore, a British colony living through turbulent political times with a war hanging in the horizon. Chen Su Lin is a bright young woman afflicted with a limp courtesy of childhood polio. part of a large extended family, currently living at her Uncle Chen's shop, her family's businesses includes black markets and money laundering. She is working as vital admin support at the Detective Shack, close to Detective Thomas Le Froy, set up by the British to control and put down any challenges to their colonial rule. The British Bernard 'Bald Bernie' Hemsworth was instrumental in seeing Su Lin lose her job, a local, especially a woman, is surely not capable of doing the job, and he wants her replaced by a white woman, Sarah Radley, although it is Dolly Darling who takes up the post. Su Li has been making a living instead by writing articles, teaching English to the Japanese Mrs Maki, and providing secretarial services through the British Mrs Catherine Lexington.

As you might imagine, Bald Bernie is not one of Su Lin's favourite people, but when she turns up at the Detective Shack to help Dolly, who is unqualified and unable to do Su Lin's old job, she is not that distraught when they discover the dead body of Bernie, a man almost universally disliked. The British are not going to let this go, he was representing the colonial powers, and they are determined, in the form of Colonel Mosley-Partington, to find the murderer. They are convinced the killer is an Indian 'terrorist' fighting for Indian Independence, Chirag Bose, responsible for the killing of Alan Weston, and attacking and scarring Sarah, working for Mrs Lexington that led to them moving to Singapore. The British do not trust the locals, afraid of the contagion of Indian rebellion spreading to Singapore, and paranoid about the Indian population and their 'links' with rebels. This has led them to arrest Su Lin's best friend's father, Dr Shankar, which has Su Li investigating, determined to clear him. It turns out Bernie is a race purist, misogynist, spiteful and self righteous. Su Li finds herself having to face further murders, stolen diamonds and poisoned birds, in this case, where little and nobody is as they seem.

Ovidia Yu does a great job in painting a picture of Singapore in the inter-war years, the nature of British colonialism, the inherent racism, their undoubted sense of superiority when it came to the locals, and their hysteria when it came to India, the fear of the potential loss of their jewel in the crown, and their consequent fears of Indians in Singapore as they arrest, imprison and harass them. They are continuing their policy of divide and rule in Singapore, it is barely surprising that so many locals are antagonistic about the exploitative colonial rule. In addition, the region is riddled with some Japanese with their own imperialistic ambitions. This a wonderful and twisted mystery, but for me the highlights of the novel are the rich local details of Singapore and the bigger regional political portrayal in this critical historical period. Many thanks to Little, Brown for an ARC.