Miss Leda Cassidy is a woman with a special set of skills, skills she has honed over a long time. These skills are not what one would normally expect of a gentile Irish lady who takes the odd job as a companion or tutor to the upper classes but, in Meihan Boey’s charming novel The Formidable Miss Cassidy, turn out to be surprisingly useful. We get to see Miss Cassidy’s skills on display in two supernatural adventures that blend European and Southeast Asian magic and myths, adventures that Miss Cassidy pulls off with an understated Victorian aplomb.
Miss Cassidy arrives in Singapore to take up a position as a companion to Miss Sarah Jane Bendemeer. No one would think twice about Miss Cassidy’s appointment. Sarah Jane’s mother and siblings recently passed away in one of the all too common runs of disease that plagued Europeans in the tropics. Her deeply mourning father has hired Miss Cassidy to help his daughter make her way in society. Miss Cassidy, we learn, has an ulterior motive. She knows that there is something very wrong at the Bendemeer house. Something more than bad memories and sorrow are haunting the grounds. So while she institutes a regime of daily walks and visits to other European families in the city, Miss Cassidy does her utmost to deal with the supernatural threat.
Miss Cassidy’s job with the Bendemeers comes to a stunning climax halfway through the novel, which I found odd. I’m not used to reading what is essentially two novellas spliced together. The second half of the novel sees Miss Cassidy move to the home of Mr. Kay Wing Tong, who she met at a wedding earlier in the book. It’s clear from the start that Mr. Kay has taken a shine to Miss Cassidy—much to her exasperation. When the Bendemeers leave Singapore, Mr. Kay offers her a job teaching English to his twin daughters, daughters-in-law, and any other women in his household who care to learn. I enjoyed watching Mr. Kay tease and provoke Miss Cassidy. I’m a sucker for banter.
Both halves of The Formidable Miss Cassidy are entertaining, even if the pacing is a bit jarring. I loved the characters and the setting. Miss Cassidy is the kind of person who can make herself at home anywhere she goes and I enjoyed following her around as she explores Singapore, from the mansions of the wealthy to middle-class apothecaries and fabric shops to the lairs of local shamans. Boey’s descriptions are so powerful that I started to sweat in the imagined heat and could almost feel the silks admired by Mr. Kay’s daughters. Most of all, I adored what Boey did with various mythical creatures and almost forgotten goddesses. I’m looking forward to more adventures with Miss Cassidy.
