#BookReview ‘A Meditation on Murder’ by Robert Thorogood #crime

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I started reading the Death in Paradise series by Robert Thorogood out of order, a long time before I read his Marlow Murder Club books. So I’ve gone back to the beginning with A Meditation on Murder. It’s an impossible closed room mystery. Six people go into a room, lockable only from the inside. When the door is opened again, one is dead. This is not just any room though, its a paper-walled meditation cabin at a swanky Caribbean hotel. Aslan Kennedy, co-owner of The Retreat, is dead and his killer admits she did it. Except Julia Higgins can’t have been the killer.
It’s a knotty problem for Detective Inspector Richard Poole who ‘felt as though he had a load of jigsaw pieces, but he couldn’t even begin to put them together because they all came from different jigsaw puzzles.’ Poole is a fish out of water, a process-drive Englishman in suit and lace-ups living in a shack with an inbuilt tree and a resident lizard called Harry. He’s never swum in the sea and isn’t coping well with the Caribbean heat. Inspector Poole is also stubborn, which means he refuses to discount small inconvenient clues such as the drawing pin found in the meditation cabin. He also refuses to accept Julia’s confession.
This is a very funny novel that moves along at a fair clip. I picked it up needing an easy read and read it in 24 hours. Just the job.

Here’s my review of the second in this series:
THE KILLING OF POLLY CARTER #2DEATHINPARADISE

… and other books by the same author:-
THE MARLOW MURDER CLUB #1MARLOWMURDERCLUB
DEATH COMES TO MARLOW #2MARLOWMURDERCLUB
THE QUEEN OF POISONS #3MARLOWMURDERCLUB

If you like this, try:-
‘A Cornish Recipe for Murder’ by Fiona Leitch #5NOSEYPARKER
‘Murder on Board’ by Helena Dixon #10MISSUNDERHAY
‘A Medal for Murder’ by Frances Brody #2KATESHACKLETON

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview A MEDITATION ON MURDER by Robert Thorogood https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-9Xc via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-

#BookReview ‘Kingdom Come’ by Toby Clements #historicalfiction #WarsoftheRoses

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The impression of peace and security is transient in 1470. Kingdom Come by Toby Clements is the fourth book in the Kingmaker historical series set during the Wars of the Roses. And such a book it is I didn’t want to put it down. I have developed a fondness for Thomas and Katherine Everingham. The story continues on immediately from the end of the third book, Divided Souls, as King Edward IV is drawn north to deal with rebellion. The Earl of Warwick has switched sides and now backs the old king Henry VI whose wife Margaret of Anjou seeks to enthrone their son Edward of Westminster. King Edward is deposed and forced to flee to Bruges with his loyal retinue including Thomas’s patron, Lord William Hastings. Thomas and Katherine go too with their two children, Rufus and new baby Alice. As they face more impossible decisions, tragedy, poverty and vicious battles, the couple long simply to go home.
Kingdom Come is a page-turning story set in 1470-1471 when the wars see the three York brothers separated and reunited, where the York and Lancaster armies march to and fro across the country to meet in battle again and again, buffeting Thomas and Katherine to and fro entangled in events over which they have no control.
At the heart of this series are three secrets shielded by Thomas and Katherine. One a ledger, hidden for ten years, contains an inconvenient truth that could bring about their own deaths and make the already violent Wars of the Roses explode as kin turns on kin. The proof is ‘bundled tightly in its waxed linen and leather bindings, heavy as any chain, shackling them, inescapably, to the great weight of their pasts.’ The second secret, shrouded in mystery throughout, is seen with a wisp of a hint here and there but is so fleeting it is forgotten in the stories of Thomas and Katherine moving north and south, east and west, in pursuit of safety and the truth. Always, they return home to Marton Hall in Lincolnshire. The third secret, re-emerges in Kingdom Come to drive them from their home into destitution, refugees overseas, then back into battle at Barnet and then Tewkesbury.
Heartily recommended. This is a fine series. I’m crossing my fingers that there will be another Kingmaker installment to take us to the fall of Yorkist rule and the dawn of the Tudors.

Read my reviews of the other books in this series:-
WINTER PILGRIMS #1KINGMAKER
BROKEN FAITH #2KINGMAKER
DIVIDED SOULS #3KINGMAKER

And also by Toby Clements:-
A GOOD DELIVERANCE

If you like this, try:-
‘The Players’ by Minette Walters
‘The Key in the Lock’ by Beth Underdown
‘Plague Land’ by SD Sykes #1OSWALDDELACY

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview KINGDOM COME by Toby Clements https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-90E via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-

#BookReview ‘A Medal for Murder’ by Frances Brody @FrancesBrody #cosycrime

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I started reading the Kate Shackleton series of 1920s detective novels in the wrong order, so I’ve gone back to the beginning. A Medal for Murder is the second Kate book by Frances Brody. With flashbacks to the 1899 Boer War, it adds layer upon layer to the puzzles faced by Kate. 1922. Harrogate is a genteel city, a night at the theatre, a visit to a friend. But Kate Shackleton’s visit to her director friend doesn’t go to plan when on the last night of the play, a wealthy local businessman is found dead, a dagger in his chest.
Drawn to the spa town as part of an investigation into robbery at a Leeds pawn shop, Kate finds herself instead following clues to find the murderer. Everyone in Harrogate seems polite, helpful, thoughtful, concerned about the murder, ready to help. But are they really being helpful or trying to distract the investigation? Kate, who has stayed the night with her theatre producer friend Meriel, is asked for help from another source. Meriel’s landlord, elderly Captain Wolfendale, has received a ransom note. His grand-daughter Lucy, a budding actress, has been kidnapped. The note warns not to alert the police and so the captain asks for Kate’s help. As Kate’s three unrelated cases – theft, murder, kidnap – keep overlapping, she begins to wonder if everyone is acting a role. Is anyone telling her the truth? Where is Lucy, has she been kidnapped or is she hiding from someone. And why is the captain’s war experience significant?
A Medal for Murder starts slowly and builds the tension gradually. But the twist, when it comes, will take your breath away. I didn’t see it coming at all. Brody has a wonderful talent for misleading the reader, laying false clues and real ones, that keep you guessing for so long. Kate Shackleton is a very likeable protagonist, an independent woman making her own life post-Great War, shaped by her wartime experiences. Now a professional detective, Kate must consider the moral question: is a thief always a thief, or can there be mitigating factors that excuse or explain guilt? Harrogate, a beautiful spa town, is a worthy character in its own right.
Next in the series is Murder in the Afternoon.

Read my reviews of these other Kate Shackleton novels:-
DYING IN THE WOOL #1KATESHACKLETON … read the #FirstPara HERE.
A DEATH IN THE DALES #7KATESHACKLETON
A SNAPSHOT OF MURDER #10KATESHACKLETON
DEATH AND THE BREWERY QUEEN #12KATESHACKLETON
A MANSION FOR MURDER #13KATESHACKLETON

If you like this, try:-
‘The Various Haunts of Men’ by Susan Hill #1SIMONSERRAILLER
‘A Rising Man’ by Abir Mukherjee #1WYNDHAM&BANERJEE
‘Murder Under her Skin’ by Steven Spotswood #2PENTECOST&PARKER

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview A MEDAL FOR MURDER by Frances Brody @FrancesBrody https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-8Zq via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-

#BookReview ‘The Fourth Queen’ by Nicola Cornick @NicolaCornick #historical #timeslip #Tudor

#BookReview ‘The Pinnacle’ by Abir Mukherjee @radiomukhers #thriller #India

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‘This was India. They did democracy different here.’ The Pinnacle by Abir Mukherjee starts at a fast pace and races to the last page. Having just finished a long detailed historical novel, this speed made me feel as if I’d overdosed on caffeine. But I stuck with it because I’m a big fan of Mukherjee’s Raj-era crime series. The Pinnacle is set now in Mumbai, it’s a million miles from 1919 Calcutta. Two wealthy actors, American husband and Bollywood star wife, live a beautiful life in a luxury apartment with soaring views across the city. But reality is different from the image. George Abercrombie wakes on the sofa after a drunken night out to find his wife Sweety Sahota dead in their bed. His servant Amit isn’t answering his phone, their maid wants to make breakfast for her mistress and Sweety’s American PA will arrive at any moment. George panics. What follows is like the Winston Wolf scene in Pulp Fiction.
The Pinnacle is a rollercoaster puzzle ride of politicians, gangsters, blackmail, extreme wealth, extreme poverty and misogyny. We see the action from three viewpoints, George, manservant Amit and PA Gemma. But who do we believe, are we seeing the truth or a curated reality. George and Sweety, after all, are actors. Who killed Sweety? Who is the blackmailer and why? Where is Sweety’s jewellery and laptop? Who did she visit earlier in the evening of her death? Who has most to lose, and who is the boss of the boss of the boss? I guessed quite early and then doubted my first instinct.
In the Wyndham & Banerjee books, Mukherjee focusses on the hypocrisy and arrogance of India’s colonial occupiers, in The Pinnacle the same behaviour is seen amongst the rich. None of the characters are likeable but perhaps my favourite – simply for her name and her zebra sofas – is Roxanne Bunglewalla, daughter of the Pinnacle’s owner. When George enters Roxanne’s penthouse for the first time, he thinks, ‘Roxanne Bunglewalla’s place was best viewed through sunglasses, ideally with the lights off, seeing as it was decked out in more gold than the US Olympics team and Jay-Z put together. It was like King Midas had come to Mumbai, got hammered with Louis XIV and then both of them decided to enter the interior design business for a bet.’ Mukherjee is a master of the funny one-liners.
Fast-paced, good fun. At times the pace was so quick I lost track of things, but Mukherjee is in control of the story throughout and I soon picked up the thread again. I read it quickly in two days.

Here are my reviews of the Raj-era Wyndham & Banerjee crime series, also by Abir Mukherjee:-
A RISING MAN #1WYNDHAM&BANERJEE
A NECESSARY EVIL #2WYNDHAM&BANERJEE
SMOKE AND ASHES #3WYNDHAM&BANERJEE
DEATH IN THE EAST #4WYNDHAM&BANERJEE
THE SHADOWS OF MEN #5WYNDHAM&BANERJEE
THE BURNING GROUNDS #6WYNDHAM&BANERJEE

If you like this, try:-
‘Before the Fall’ by Noah Hawley
‘Gone Girl’ by Gillian Flynn
‘Beautiful Ugly’ by Alice Feeney

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE PINNACLE by Abir Mukherjee @radiomukhers https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-9Vq via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-

#BookReview ‘Evil in High Places’ by Rory Clements #crime #thriller

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I always eagerly anticipate sinking into the second novel of a new series. While the first one introduces characters, sets the scene and context, the second is about action. Evil in High Places is second in the 1930s German thriller series by Rory Clements featuring maverick police detective Sebastian Wolff. And it’s brilliant. Munich 1936. The Winter Olympics are coming to town and a famous actress inconveniently disappears. Wolff is told to find her and be quick about it because Elena Lang is not just a beautiful actress, she’s also the mistress of Hitler’s right-hand man. When a body is found, Wolff is told to make it go away and keep it absolutely secret until after the Olympics are over. Wolff’s job is complicated by the company that Elena keeps; Bavarian aristocrats, senior SS officers, Unity Mitford and assorted foreign hangers-on who like to party. Their sense of entitlement, the wealth, their arrogance is overwhelming and threatening. Wolff, an outsider who struggles to give a convincing Heil Hitler salute, persists in asking awkward questions of powerful people. Another complication is the second case that lands on Wolff’s desk. A local SS officer has been found shot in a local forest. This also must be kept secret during the Olympics. Wolff, who believes in the law, finds himself keeping secrets and hiding bodies. He keeps his suspicions to himself, they could get him killed.
The sub-plots power along nicely too. Will Wolff and his girlfriend Hexie ever get married? How will Wolff’s son Jurgen react when a letter arrives from Berlin. Jurgen’s mother Ulrike, who left Seb when Jurgen was a baby, is coming to Munich and would like to meet up. And why does Wolff’s sergeant Hans Winter volunteer for a difficult dangerous undercover job in Dachau prison camp? All the action takes place in Munich and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, location of the Olympic events and a film shoot, so the the book is populated with film stars and famous athletes.
This is a dramatic, twisty, exciting thriller with a likeable, decent hero operating amongst wolves. Rory Clements is a favourite author for me; he writes reliably unpredictable, exciting, well-researched thrillers, steeped in wartime Germany.
Next in the series is Invitation from a Dictator.

Read my review of MUNICH WOLF, first in the Sebastian Wolff series.

And here are my reviews of the Tom Wilde WW2 thriller series, also by Rory Clements:-
CORPUS #1TOMWILDE
NUCLEUS #2TOMWILDE
NEMESIS #3TOMWILDE
HITLER’S SECRET #4TOMWILDE
A PRINCE AND A SPY #5TOMWILDE
THE MAN IN THE BUNKER #6TOMWILDE
THE ENGLISH FUHRER #7TOMWILDE
A COLD WIND FROM MOSCOW #8TOMWILDE

If you like this, try:-
‘Waiting for Sunrise’ by William Boyd
‘Blow Your House Down’ by Pat Barker
‘Wolf Winter’ by Cecilia Ekback

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview EVIL IN HIGH PLACES by Rory Clements https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-92L via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-

#BookReview ‘The Queen’s Painter’ by Wendy Holden @Wendy_Holden #historical #AnneBoleyn #Tudor

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Wendy Holden has found a fresh take on the familiar Anne Boleyn story in The Queen’s Painter and it’s an absorbing, entertaining and fun read. Basically it’s revenge drama as three of Anne’s supporters seek a way to make Thomas Cromwell pay for organising her death. Young German painter Hans Holbein arrives at the English court hoping to make his fortune as an artist and also to see again the teenage girl he met in France. That girl is now Queen Anne, her husband Henry VIII. What follows is an inventive plot organised by poet and diplomat Thomas Wyatt, Holbein and Anne’s serving woman Jennet to bring about the downfall of Cromwell. Cromwell, however, proves almost indestructable. Observations of the Tudor court are familiar from the novels of Philippa Gregory, CJ Sansom etc, as are many of the real characters, but what makes this novel so unusual is the voice of Hans Holbein. At heart, this is the story of Holbein’s life, some of it told in flashback, and of his profession as an artist negotiating the difficulties and subtleties of court diplomacy. Painting techniques, completed works, subjects, rival artists and his works portraying the royal court. Holbein was famed for painting true portraits of his subjects and Holden takes this fact and has enormous fun with it. Don’t miss the author’s ‘Acknowledgements’ at the end where she explains her lifelong fascination with Tudor life and Holbein’s portraits.
So this is a novel portraying a historically famous period in British history featuring possibly our most famous, or infamous, queen. It is a revenge mystery, and is also funny and clever. Hans’ fascination with Anne Boleyn takes on a supernatural element as her ghost pops up every now and then with pertinent, wry and witty comments that add colour to the scene and spur Hans on towards revenge.
Once I finished reading, I revisited Holbein’s paintings and particularly ‘The Ambassadors’ which features at the beginning of the novel as Holbein’s portrait-that-was-not-a-portrait of Anne.
Thoroughly enjoyable. I’ve read Wendy Holden since her first romantic comedy in 1999, Simply Divine, and have never since been disappointed.

Read my reviews of these other novels by Wendy Holden:-
THE DUCHESS
THE PRINCESS

If you like this, try:-
‘Dissolution’ by CJ Sansom #1SHARDLAKE
‘The House of Seymour’ by Joanna Hickson
‘The Royal Rebel’ by Elizabeth Chadwick#1JEANETTEOFKENT

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE QUEEN’S PAINTER by Wendy Holden @Wendy_Holden https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-9WS via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-

#BookReview ‘Murder in Manhattan’ by Verity Bright @BrightVerity #cosymystery #crime

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1920s New York City. Yellow taxi cabs. Gangsters. Broadway. Prohibition. And Lady Eleanor Swift. What can possibly go wrong? In Murder in Manhattan by Verity Bright there are two murders and lots of suspects set in the twenty-four hour noise and bustle that is Manhattan. Following on directly from the action at the end of Death on Deck, Ellie, butler Clifford and her household staff are staying in a luxurious apartment; Detective Chief Inspector Hugh Seldon, Ellie’s new fiancé, has returned to England. New York is not quite what Ellie expected. There’s an irascible old lady who insults them in the lift, people seem to speak a different language and the food in the diners is greasy. But there are compensations; for example Marty, the welcoming doorman at their apartment block, and Iver Driver, the chatty cab driver. And, thanks to newspaper coverage of her trans-Atlantic investigations aboard the Celestiana, Eleanor has received invitations to lots of swanky parties.
When Marty is killed in a hit-and-run accident, Eleanor begins to investigate. Except no-one else is interested. The straight-talking New Yorkers shrug their shoulders and are bemused that a titled English lady should care about a dead man she hardly knew. Hard-nosed beat cop Officer Balowski tells her, ‘Forget the whole thing, lady. I know you don’t like it, but in this city, no one cares about one more dead doorman.’ Never one to take ‘no’ for an answer, Ellie’s team of two – herself and Clifford – go downstairs to the basement accommodation of Marty’s mother Mrs Morales and his brother Earl. There they make a discovery that suggests Marty may have had something to hide.
As in preceding novels – The French for Murder, Murder in an Irish Castle and Death on Deck – Ellie is away from home, far from her comfort zone with a background cast of familiar characters. Each of these books has a different tone and this one particularly has a dangerous edge. Eleanor doesn’t hesitate to defend the underdogs and doesn’t care a fig for what people think of her. But when she stands up to bullies, she meets her match. As the investigation progresses Ellie’s team expands in number until there is a second most unexpected murder. Yes I guessed the identity of the murderer but mostly on a hunch and an instinctive dislike rather than evidence. Bright as usual balances the mixture of murder investigation with mystery, tension, humour and food.
A fun read that made me pick up the book at every available moment. I do miss Hugh, though.

If you like this, try:-
‘Death and the Brewery Queen’ by Frances Brody #12KATESHACKLETON
‘The Seaside Murders’ by Helena Dixon #2SECRETDETECTIVEAGENCY
‘The Killing of Polly Carter’ by Robert Thorogood #2DEATHINPARADISE

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview MURDER IN MANHATTAN by Verity Bright @BrightVerity https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-8tg via SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-

#BookReview ‘The Lost Garden’ by Angela Petch #WW2 #Italy

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A World War Two journey from innocence to experience in the harshest and cruellest of conditions. The Lost Garden by Angela Petch tells the story of Contessina Ernestina di Montesecco, better known as Tina, as war comes to the picturesque village of Sant’Agnese in Romagna and brings with it a canker to the heart of Tina’s beautiful home. Angela Petch is a talented storyteller using Italy, a country she knows well and loves, as the complex setting for her novels. The Lost Garden is no exception. The beauty of the village and countryside is juxtaposed with the rottenness of life in Mussolini’s Italy. There is wealth and poverty, fascism and communism, profiteering and charity. Divisions are fostered, mistrust is everywhere, secrets are kept close and no one is trusted.
An intriguing Prologue gives us a glimpse of the novel’s ending. In 1946 in the Castle of Montesecco, a woman is making plans. The war has ended but the resentments, mistrust, revenge and hatred continue. And then the main story begins in 1939. The first half of the novel is slow-moving as the character and background of Tina is established. Following the death of her mother in childbirth, Tina’s difficult relationship with her father is counter-balanced by the support from housekeeper Allegra and from the circle of friends Tina has grown up with. No one is untouched by the war, each detail of their life is affected. Tina’s father continues to treat her as a child though she is now a young woman. He employs an Austrian woman as her governess, sells her beloved horse Baffi and introduces her to a succession of eligible men from his fascist circle.
As the hardship of war worsens, the ties that bind Tina and her friends together become fractured. As her father’s links to the Nazis become brazen, some villagers shun Tina in the assumption that she supports her father. This is when Tina’s rebellious nature begins to dominate, encouraged by her pharmacist friend Luisa and partisans Olivio and Sergio. Central to the story is a secret garden within the castle walls. Made by her mother as a place of comfort and safety, it has been hidden away by Tina’s father. Finding her mother’s gardening notebook, Tina secretly begins to restore the garden to its glory, taking risks, and in so doing matures into a brave young woman unafraid to challenge the wrongs around her.
An interesting but slow story that finally packs a punch towards the end. I admit I struggled to maintain concentration in the first half but the pace, danger, brutality and risk speed up substantially after the halfway point. The ghostly voice of Tina’s mother floats in and out, adding context to Tina and the family. The garden is central to Tina’s life, a symbol of her mother’s rebellion in an unhappy marriage and of Tina’s own rebellion against her autocratic fascist father. She knows she must choose a side in the war and the garden is symbolic of this. Not only is it a space of respite for Tina it also becomes a haven for the partisans.
A sad story of the effects of war on close communities driven apart by diverging political affiliations, the deprivations of poverty and the things people must do to survive, followed by the swingeing judgement that follows when peace finally arrives.

Here are my reviews of other novels also by Angela Petch:-
THE GIRL WHO ESCAPED
THE POSTCARD FROM ITALY
THE SICILIAN SECRET
THE TUSCAN SECRET

If you like this, try:-
‘Akin’ by Emma Donoghue
‘The Secret Shore’ by Liz Fenwick
‘The Silence in Between’ by Josie Ferguson

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE LOST GARDEN by Angela Petch https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-9Wd via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-

#BookReview ‘The Burning Grounds’ by Abir Mukherjee @radiomukhers #crime #historical #India #Raj

6 Replies

It is three years since The Shadows of Men when Suren Banerjee fled Calcutta for Europe. In The Burning Grounds, fifth in the Wyndham & Banerjee series by Abir Mukherjee, Suren returns to the city and to his former colleague Captain Sam Wyndham. Both are facing difficult cases, each needs the other’s help but is reluctant to ask. A man is found dead in the burning ghats of Calcutta. Wyndham, out of favour at the Imperial Police Force and trusted only with the most menial of cases, is sent to deal with the body. Except the corpse isn’t just anyone. He’s one of the city’s wealthiest businessmen, a patron of the arts, producer of a film being shot in Calcutta at this moment. He is admired wherever he goes. And now his throat has been cut.
Suren, who has returned home to India after his relationship in Paris with a French woman faltered, is drifting without a job, without authority. Then his cousin Dolly, a photographer, goes missing. Suren, desperate to find her, goes cap in hand to Wyndham. The reunion is awkward, both blame the other for the cause of Suren’s flight abroad. Begrudgingly, day by day, they work together, sniping, squabbling, resentful. Both are changed men and Calcutta is changing too. Dolly’s studio has been ransacked, no-one has seen her and Suren is frantic with worry. Meanwhile at a party a million miles away from the burning grounds, Sam meets a glamorous woman. Estelle Morgan is the Australian actress whose face is on the front pages of newspapers. They both enjoy a mild flirtation and Sam begins to wonder if there is a life for him beyond the grief for his dead wife and his more recent regrets at the failure of his on-off relationship with Annie Grant. But when he is charged with investigating the death of JP Mulllick, he must travel to Bishnupore to interview the film crew, he sees Estelle Morgan again. Suren goes too. More people die, none of them Dolly, but when the two cases, oh so different, are linked, Sam and Suren must learn to work together again.
Set against the last decades of the Raj, the success of these books is the laser focus on the relationship of two men who were born thousands of miles distant from each other. Intellectually they are on a level, in religious and cultural terms they are poles apart, but they find common ground in their belief in the triumph of right over wrong, the pursuit of criminality and along the way wrestle with cultural dilemmas, shames, beliefs and behaviours on both Anglo and Indian sides. As the country inches towards independence, the balance of power in the two men’s relationship adjusts too.
Excellent. This is a fine series of historical crime fiction.

Here are my reviews of the first five books in the Wyndham & Banerjee series:-
A RISING MAN #1WYNDHAM&BANERJEE
A NECESSARY EVIL #2WYNDHAM&BANERJEE
SMOKE AND ASHES #3WYNDHAM&BANERJEE
DEATH IN THE EAST #4WYNDHAM&BANERJEE
THE SHADOWS OF MEN #5WYNDHAM&BANERJEE

And a standalone contemporary thriller:-
THE PINNACLE

If you like this, try:-
‘My Name is Yip’ by Paddy Crewe
‘Leeward’ by Katie Daysh #1NIGHTINGALE&COURTNEY
‘The Silver Bone’ by Andrey Kurkov #1KYIVMYSTERIES

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE BURNING GROUNDS by Abir Mukherjee @radiomukhers https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-91l via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-

	#BookReview ‘Murder… on #BookReview ‘Murder on Board…
	#BookReview ‘Alchemy… on #BookReview ‘A Column of Fire’…
	#BookReview ‘Alchemy… on #BookReview ‘The Angel’s…
	#BookReview ‘The Sec… on #BookReview ‘Murder on Board…
	#BookReview ‘The Sea… on #BookReview ‘Murder Under her…

SANDRA DANBY'S BOOK REVIEWS

Sharing thoughts on the books I read, new authors, favourite authors, classics re-visisted

#BookReview ‘A Meditation on Murder’ by Robert Thorogood #crime

#BookReview ‘Kingdom Come’ by Toby Clements #historicalfiction #WarsoftheRoses

#BookReview ‘A Medal for Murder’ by Frances Brody @FrancesBrody #cosycrime

#BookReview ‘The Fourth Queen’ by Nicola Cornick @NicolaCornick #historical #timeslip #Tudor

#BookReview ‘The Pinnacle’ by Abir Mukherjee @radiomukhers #thriller #India

#BookReview ‘Evil in High Places’ by Rory Clements #crime #thriller

#BookReview ‘The Queen’s Painter’ by Wendy Holden @Wendy_Holden #historical #AnneBoleyn #Tudor

#BookReview ‘Murder in Manhattan’ by Verity Bright @BrightVerity #cosymystery #crime

#BookReview ‘The Lost Garden’ by Angela Petch #WW2 #Italy

#BookReview ‘The Burning Grounds’ by Abir Mukherjee @radiomukhers #crime #historical #India #Raj

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