By Fiona Capp
The Mysterious Mr Jacob
John Zubrzycki
Transit Lounge, $29.99
It is a role that might have been written for Ben Kingsley wearing a waxed Victorian moustache: a mysterious figure arrives in India under the British Raj as a penniless young man and transforms himself into "the uncrowned king of Simla". A mesmerising storyteller, magician, dealer in exotic treasures, philosopher and purveyor of strategic intelligence, Alexander Jacob had the ear of viceroys and maharajas. Unlike many charming wheeler-dealers, it wasn't greed that brought him down but "the thrill of the hustle". Central to this technicolour account of his life is Jacob's attempt to sell the Nizam of Hyderabad the biggest brilliant cut diamond in the world and the court case that ensued when the Nizam accused him of fraud. As Zubryzcki observes, it is a story "more remarkable than any fiction or any mystery that our strangest dreams could possess".
