Tag Archives: raj-era fiction

#BookReview ‘The Shadows of Men’ by Abir Mukherjee @radiomukhers #crime #historical #India #Raj

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Calcutta 1923. The Shadows of Men by Abir Mukherjee, fifth in the excellent Raj-era crime series, begins four years after the first book. A lot has happened in Calcutta since 1919, India is evolving as the power balance changes and the country edges towards the end of British rule. And the relationship between the two policemen is shifting too. Abir MukherjeeIt is significant that The Shadows of Men switches narrator back and forth between Captain Sam Wyndham and Sergeant Surendranath Banerjee, and that the first chapter begins with Suren. With Gandhi in prison, the independence movement is fighting internally, local elections have enforced divisions between Hindus and Moslims, high caste and low caste, landowners and peasants, neighbour against neighbour, gangster against gangster. Unknown to Sam, police commissioner Lord Taggart orders Suren to follow a visiting muslim politician. And then Suren is arrested for murder.
Unsure who to trust, Sam must identify the real murderer to clear Suren’s name. What follows is a search for the truth, a chase west across India from Calcutta to Bombay. At risk is not only a temporary calming in Calcutta, which is a powder keg waiting to explode, but also the fate of Indian politics. Will Suren hang for murder. Can Sam unravel the tangled clues to find who is killing who. And is there a traitor at police headquarters.
In this book, Suren is given his voice and we see for the first time the depth of his passion for his country, his pride in being a policeman, and the red lines he will not cross.
What an excellent series this is. A rollercoaster of a novel with a cliffhanger ending that was most unexpected. Next is The Burning Grounds.

Here are my reviews of the first four 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 

If you like this, try:-
‘Darktown’ by Thomas Mullen
‘I Refuse’ by Per Petterson
‘The Killing Lessons’ by Saul Black

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE SHADOWS OF MEN by Abir Mukherjee @radiomukhers https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-8J7 via @SandraDanby

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

#BookReview ‘Death in the East’ by Abir Mukherjee @radiomukhers #crime #historical #India #Raj

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Death in the East by Abir Mukherjee begins as Sam Wyndham, police captain and opium-addict, is on his way to Assam to dry out at an ashram when at a railway station he sees a man he thought was dead. And so begins a two-tier murder mystery dating back to Wyndham’s time as a London policeman before the Great War. Abir MukherjeeThe story alternates between Wyndham’s detoxification in 1922 and 1905 when he was a young constable. That was the last time he saw the dead man. The detoxification procedure at the ashram is brutal and haunted by the sighting of a man he thought dead, Sam’s withdrawal symptoms worsen. The present day merges with 1905 when a young woman was murdered in the East End of London and Sam begins to distrust his ability as a policeman. Is someone telling the truth, or lying. Is the death suspicious, or of natural causes. Should he investigate, or keep quiet.
Isolated in a hillside village without transport, Wyndham is five miles from back-up at the nearest Indian thana and 70 miles away from the district superintendent. He must take the decisions, and action, himself. When the body of a fellow addict is found in a stream, Wyndham trusts his instincts that something is wrong in Jatinga. A telegram sent to his assistant in Calcutta is sent without hope or expectation of a quick reply. Wyndham is on his own, physically weak from his purgative treatment, stepping fawn-like into his post-addiction life, unsure that his instinct for reading people is working. This provides a neat parallel with his youthful self in 1905 when, determined to uphold the rule of law, he is impatient with protocol, healthy, full of energy and a sense of justice. So when Sergeant Surendranath Banerjee finally arrives in Jatinga it seems fitting when he surveys the scene and comments, ‘I have noticed… that wherever you go, people tend to die.’
I missed the presence of Sergeant Banerjee throughout this novel, underlining for me that the inter-play between these two policemen is the delight of these books. The character arcs of Wyndham and Banerjee have moved on since the first novel as the relationship between the sahibs and Indians has also altered. Death in the East is fourth in the Wyndham & Banerjee series, next is The Shadows of Men. The trajectory of the two police officers, set within the changing parameters of power and justice in Raj-ruled India, promises much for the rest of the series.

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

If you like this, try:-
‘The Vows of Silence’ by Susan Hill #4SIMONSERRAILLER
‘Dead Simple’ by Peter James #1ROYGRACE
‘The Diabolical Bones’ by Bella Ellis #2BRONTEMYSTERIES

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview DEATH IN THE EAST by Abir Mukherjee @radiomukhers https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-8GB via @SandraDanby

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

#BookReview ‘A Necessary Evil’ by Abir Mukherjee @radiomukhers #crime #historical #India

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After thoroughly enjoying A Rising Man, first in the Wyndham & Banerjee Raj-era Indian crime series by Scottish author Abir Mukherjee, I couldn’t wait to read the next. A Necessary Evil doesn’t disappoint. Abir MukherjeeMukherjee has a wonderful way with words that make you smile but also put you straight into the place and time of his setting. Within five pages I’d already smiled three times, starting with the opening line, ‘It’s not often you see a man with a diamond in his beard.’ Other favourites include, ‘If the prince wanted to talk to me, it at least saved me from hanging around eavesdropping like an Indian mother on the night of her son’s wedding’ and ‘The man was bald, bespectacled and nervous – like a librarian lost in a dangerous part of town.’
When Captain Sam Wyndham and Sergeant Surendranath (aka Surrender-not) Banerjee accompany His Serene Highness the Crown Prince Adhir Singh Sai of Sambalpore to important government talks at Government House in Calcutta, they do not expect to witness a murder. The small but fabulously wealthy kingdom is thrown into uncertainty at a critical time; the Viceroy is inviting twenty local maharajas to join the new Chamber of Princes, as a sop to Indian demands for Home Rule. Adi’s younger brother, playboy Punit, is now heir to the throne and their father, the Maharaja of Sambalpore, is ageing.
Wyndham suspects the clues to Adi’s killer are based in his homeland and not in Calcutta. As a schoolmate of Adi at Harrow, Surrender-not is invited to the state funeral in Sambalpore and so Wyndham goes along too, ‘on holiday.’ Limited by the Raj’s absence of authority to investigate in the state of Orissa, language difficulties and the inability to speak to women living in purdah in the palace’s zenana, nevertheless Wyndham stubbornly continues to seek the truth. They encounter a maelstrom of politics, religion, ambition, secrets and jealousy with power at the heart.
Mukherjee writes atmospherically of this period towards the end of the Raj, juxtaposing the arrogant authoritarian but sometimes well-meaning nature of the Raj towards the Indians with that of the maharajas towards their subjects. It is a complicated time. The wealth on display is as glittering as the poverty is dirty. There is law and order, tradition and community. But scratch the surface to find cruelty, rivalry, envy and ambition; everywhere.
This is a fast-paced read with the two central characters catapulted into a dangerous political arena in a strange city where they have no back-up and no friends. Everyone comes under suspicion, except each other. Banerjee quite often adds a hand of restraint on Wyndham’s arm as he is about to go dashing off into the fray, whereas Wyndham adds words of encouragement and motivation when Banerjee’s self-confidence is wavering. They make a brilliant pairing.
A Necessary Evil is an exciting sequel to A Rising Man, faster-paced and more intricate. This series is now up and running. Next in the series is Smoke and Ashes.

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

If you like this, try:-
‘Murder at the Dolphin Hotel’ by Helena Dixon #1MissUnderhay
‘The Guest List’ by Lucy Foley
‘A Death in Valencia’ by Jason Webster #2MaxCamara

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview A NECESSARY EVIL by Abir Mukherjee @radiomukhers https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7Zz via @SandraDanby

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