L’attaque du Calcutta-Darjeeling

Wyndham & Banerjee #1

by Abir Mukherjee

Inde, 1919. Sam Wyndham, un ancien inspecteur de Scotland Yard traumatisé par la Grande Guerre, débarque à Calcutta pour intégrer la police impériale. Dès son arrivée, on l'appelle sur la scène d'un meurtre effroyable, à proximité d'une maison close. Dans la gorge de la victime, un membre éminent de l'administration coloniale, on trouve une lettre de menace exigeant le départ de tous les Britanniques, sans quoi le pire serait encore à venir. Avec la survie de l'Empire en jeu, Wyndham, épaulé par le sergent Banerjee, va devoir résoudre cette affaire au plus vite, malgré les violences qui se multiplient...

Genres: Mystery, Historical Fiction, Fiction, India, Crime, Historical, Historical Mystery

464 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 5, 2016

About the author

Abir Mukherjee is the Times bestselling author of the Sam Wyndham series of crime novels set in Raj era India. His debut, A Rising Man, won the CWA Endeavour Dagger for best historical crime novel of 2017 and was shortlisted for the MWA Edgar for best novel. His second novel, A Necessary Evil, won the Wilbur Smith Award for Adventure Writing and was a Zoe Ball Book Club pick. His third novel, Smoke and Ashes, was chosen by the Sunday Times as one of the 100 Best Crime & Thriller Novels since 1945. Abir grew up in Scotland and now lives in London with his wife and two sons.

Reviews

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

* Thank you to www.shotsmag.co.uk for my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review*

A sumptuous feast of the sights and sounds of early 20th century Calcutta, are served up in this compelling and complex criminal investigation.

After surviving the horrors of the Great War, and the loss of his wife, Captain Sam Wyndham, former Scotland Yard detective, takes up a new post in Calcutta's police force. It's a fresh start for him, but the latter days of the British Raj are a world away from life in England.

He falls headlong into his role when a senior British Official turns up murdered in a filthy sewer in the wrong part of town. The murder takes the Captain from the stunning homes of the wealthy traders, to the less salubrious brothels, seedy opium dens, and filthy alleyways of this troubled city.

Working alongside Captain Wyndham are British educated, Indian born Sergeant 'Surrender Not' Bannerjee, and Inspector Digby. Bannerjee is a quiet thoughtful man of great moral integrity. Digby is an arrogant man who makes no secret of his contempt for the natives, and in particular Sergeant Bannerjee . Tensions naturally run high and Sam Wyndham is caught between the two, but his great sense of humour and natural leadership win out, and between the three of them, they manage to bring the investigation to a satisfactory conclusion.

I loved the way the author's descriptions brought this time and place in history very much to life. With rising political instability, and the days of British rule nearing its end, the tension is almost palpable, and adds extra flavour to this excellent investigation. Sam Wyndham and Bannerjee were wonderful characters - Digby of course was despicable, but without him in the mix, it wouldn't have played out the same.

All in all, a powerful peek into a forgotten world, and in two words "very good"

[Paromjit · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a confident and assured debut by Abir Mukerjee with this historical thriller set in Calcutta, in the Raj era of India in 1919. Captain Sam Wyndham is a new arrival to the city, joining the Imperial Police Force, working with the resentful Digby, and the British educated Sergeant Banerjee, referred to as 'Surrender-not' because the British cannot pronounce his name. Wyndham is a weary and cynical man with a background in the police and Special Branch back in England, and having seen the futile deaths of so many whilst serving in the trenches of World War I. Compounding his trauma is the loss of his wife, Sarah, from a flu epidemic. He arrives in an India experiencing turbulent times, where the cracks are beginning to show in colonial rule with the growing number of people fighting for home rule. When the murdered body of Alexander MacAuley, a rising man, an aide and fixer to the Lieutenant-Governor, is discovered in Black Town, down an alley adjacent to a brothel, a note is found inside his mouth warning the British to quit India. There is a lot of political and media pressure on Sam and his team to find the terrorists and agitators responsible.

In a sweltering city, Sam tries to find his bearings, he does not buy into the mythology and hype that the British are superior and more moral than the natives. However, he is more than capable of lapses of judgement and display a casual racism, particularly towards the symbolically named Surrender-not. He observes the Little Englander attitudes of Colonel and Mrs Tebbit and others at the Guest House he is staying in, the lower middle classes who live immeasurably better lives in India than at home, with their social circles that exclude the natives they consider so inferior. Then there are the powerful, operating under the Rowlatt Acts that allows them to act as they please with no form of judicial justice, acting with impunity when it comes to killing locals. The stench of brutality and hypocrisy from the British, the nature of sexual relations with Indian women, the greed and the economic exploitation is laid out clearly. The fractures of British rule become deeper fissures with the massacre of unarmed men, women and children in Amritsar which the British try to cover up, but knowledge of it spreads like wildfire amongst Indians. As Sam investigates, all is not as it seems as he faces unseen forces manipulating his inquiries, that Section H, the military secret police, are interfering with justice, and that as he continues to pursue the truth, he wades into dangerous waters with the knowledge he may not live to tell the tale.

The research carried out by the author is detailed and impressive. Calcutta and India are beautifully described and the narrative is drenched in atmosphere, capturing the dominant prejudices and attitudes of that time. Whilst justice is not seen to be served at the end of the novel, what arises is the ability to sway decision making marginally for the better. The highlight of the novel is the complexity of the relationship between Sam and Surrender-not. The tensions within India are replicated in it, whilst Sam is flawed, he comes to recognise the invaluable source of help his sergeant provides, including that of saving his life more than once. Sam's dogged determination and his attempts to be moral in his pursuit of real justice make him a compelling personality with a desperate need for opium, a Brit trying to do the right thing in the face of enormous obstacles. Sergeant Banerjee is the face of India that sees the possibility of home rule coming and is unconsciously preparing for it by acquiring the requisite skills. This is an outstanding historical thriller, and the period and location makes it a riveting and gripping read. Highly recommended! Cannot wait to read the next in the series.

[Annet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stood on the steps of the building, lit a cigarette and stared into the distance. The sun was now just a red disc off to the west and the temperature was dropping. That didn't mean it was comfortable, just less hot. By common consent, dusk was the best time of day out here, not that it lasted long. Night falls like a stone in the tropics. Broad daylight to darkness in less than an hour. I watched as a flock of birds flew overhead and landed on the pool at the centre of the square...

British Captain Sam Wyndham, troubled and recovering from trauma of war and his wife having recently passed away, joins the Calcutta police force in 1919 and has to find his way around the Indian city, the pressing heat and a web of politics and murder.... Full of atmosphere, seriously impressive. Loved it, absolutely loved it. What a great book, debut novel from author Abir Mukherjee. Wew, what a book, loved it! Can't wait to start the next book, which has just arrived at home :-) Recommended!

This is the story:
India, 191. Desperate for a fresh start, Captain Sam Wyndham arrives to take up an important post in Calcutta's police force. He is soon called to the scene of a horrifying murder. The victim a senior official, and a note in his mouth warns the British to leave India - or else. With the stability of the Empire under threat, Wynham and Sergeant 'Surrender-not' Banerjee must solve the case quickly. But there are some who will do anything to stop them...
Set in a Calcutta so convincingly evoked that readers will find sweat bursting from their foreheads... - Daily Telegraph
What a grand start of a really really good series of a British police officer in India which will hopefully see many sequels. Highlight of 2017!

[Carolyn Walsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brilliant, stunning historical thriller that transports the reader to the sights and sounds of Calcutta in 1919. We follow a complex and riveting criminal investigation with its moral dilemmas, political and legal implications during the time that the state of Bengal and all of India is under British rule (The Raj). The city of Calcutta (now Kolkata) is so richly evoked that I was transported by this atmospheric, well-researched novel. It was a remarkable and riveting debut.

I came to this series late, only learning about it recently on Goodreads. I was sorry I hadn't known about it sooner, but then realized I can read further books in the series in 2022. I immediately downloaded the second book to m Kindle.

Captain Sam Wyndham was a member of Special Forces/Scotland yard and a soldier in the trenches during World War 1. Traumatized by what he experienced in the war and the loss of his young wife in the flu pandemic, he is now starting life afresh in Calcutta, having joined the Imperial Police Force. Wyndham is a moral man, but sometimes feels the need for opium to dull his mental anguish. He tries to commit to his beliefs that the Indian people are not inferior to the British. He works under the command of Commissioner of Police, Lord Taggart, and with two subordinate officers. These are the arrogant, resentful, and racially prejudiced Digby and an intelligent, resourceful, British-educated native Brahmin, Sergeant Surrender-not Banerjee. Digby is jealous of Wyndham. As a 10 year veteran, he feels he deserved promotion in the ranks. Banerjee is observant and knows local languages, but due to British prejudice must behave in a subservient manner, and is unable to enter some places or conduct many inquiries.

Wyndham and his team are thrown into an investigation of the murder of a high-ranking, powerful civil servant, Alexander MacAuley. He was assistant and fixer for the Lieutenant-Governor, and also for a very wealthy rubber and jute baron. His body was found in an alley near a brothel and with a note stuffed in his mouth warning the British to quit India. Wyndham learns he recently converted to a fundamentalist Christian religion to atone for past evil, so what was he doing in that part of town?
The city is in turmoil, from the elaborate mansions of the British to the seedy underbelly of the city with its crime and poverty. Wyndham takes the late MacCauley's secretary on a few dinner dates. She is a smart, beautiful woman, but with some Indian ancestry, so they are refused to enter a restaurant.
Indians no longer want to tolerate their status under British rule.

From his lower-middle-class boarding house over inedible meals, Wyndham is giving an insight into the attitudes of the British and the cracks where people are beginning to demand home rule.
He hears racial slurs denigrating the natives as immoral and inferior and the necessity to keep them in their place. 150,000 British are in control of 300 million Indian subjects. He is told that the British must project an aura of superiority over the ruled, both military, physical and moral. The subjects must believe they are inferior and need to be ruled for their own benefit. They are compelled to believe that they need British guidance and education and that their religions and culture are inferior. MacAuley's murder indicates that some Indians no longer accept their lower status and are resorting to terrorism. A train has been boarded by a gang of ruffians and a guard killed, but nothing was stolen. Was this connected to MacAuley's murder?

The blame is put on an elusive terrorist, Sen, who has been in hiding for several years after leading some local terrorist attacks. He is rumored to be back in Calcutta. Colonel Dawson, head of the army intelligence branch (Section H) has inserted his forces into the investigation. They are out to capture Sen and charge him with MacAuley's murder, and for past crimes to sentence him to death. Under the Rowlatt Act, which allows local authorities to act with impunity killing natives without judicial trials, the hypocrisy of the British is exposed.

Wyndham becomes a hero for capturing Sen before the army's Section H does. He is wounded during apprehending the terrorist, and later learns some startling news about Sen's present objectives. However, Section H moves him to their prison where he awaits his death sentence. Wyndham and Banerjee finally solve the murder case and the reason the train was attacked but find that for the sake of the Raj compromises must be made, but with a few of them for the better.
Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys a complicated mystery set in an exotic place with changes on the horizon. An atmospheric story brimming with attitude and culture.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

MUST READ! What a delight. Thrilling!

Superb prose, great characters and dialogue, a flawed hero, amazing pacing and rhythm, and a delicious complex mystery of my favourite kind: The pieces are presented as the story develops, and you arrive at the solution along with the detective! Awesome!

And it's Mukherjee's first book! What a joy, and an amazingly satisfying historical experience as well, which bumps this book up to Five Stars.

(I’ve also read the second and third books in the Sam Wyndham series. They keep getting better! )

Apparently, Abir Mukherjee became a noir fan after a friend forced him to read Gorky Park. Good choice!

And bless his silver-tongue, Joseph Knox recommended "A Rising Man" to me just last week!
(Ten Stars: Joseph Knox Sirens and The Smiling Man)

As usual with my reviews, please first read the publisher’s blurb/summary of the book. Thank you.

This is such a great introduction to the last days of the Raj, wrapped in a murder and other mysteries. Politics abound, but the policeman pushes forward relentlessly. This reminds me of Renko in Gorky Park in many ways. Wonderful.



There is a minor romantic interest in the lovely Annie, and some supporting characters to provide clues and red herrings, all perfectly pitched and balanced to provide great entertainment throughout the entire book. No lags, no overwriting, no padding, no silly cartoon plots or characters, and with a satisfying conclusion, this is the Real Deal. I will be starting Book #2 "A Necessary Evil" in a few minutes!

There are so many fine quotations in this book, so much care and thought, and almost my favourite kind of gumshoe: the "philosopher-detective". What a delight!

Here are a few -

It was the architecture of domination and it all seemed faintly absurd. The Palladian buildings with their columns and pediments, the toga-clad statues of Englishmen long deceased, and the Latin inscriptions on everything from palaces to public lavatories. Looking at it all, a stranger could be forgiven for thinking that Calcutta had been colonised by Italians rather than Englishmen.

The Raj Bhavan



Nothing, save maybe for war, quite prepares you for Calcutta. Not the horrors recounted by returning India-men in the smoke-filled rooms of Pall Mall, not the writings of journalists and novelists, not even a five-thousand-mile sea voyage with stops in Alexandria and Aden. Calcutta, when it arrives, is on a scale more alien than anything the imagination of an Englishman can conjure up. Clive of India had called it the most wicked place in the Universe, and his was one of the more positive reviews.

Sam considers the opium from local Calcutta Chinese...
... we’d fought two wars against their [China's] emperors for the right to peddle the damn stuff [opium] in their country. And peddle it we did. So much so that we managed to make addicts out of a quarter of the male population. If you thought about it, that probably made Queen Victoria the greatest drug peddler in history.

Upon meeting a beautiful young woman, Sam thinks:
How does a man survive three years of bombing, shelling and machine-gun fire and yet still tremble with nerves when asking a woman out for lunch?

I'd feel the same way meeting this beauty:



Military intelligence had granted the Commissioner’s request .... ‘Any and all assistance’ would be provided to us. That was a nice touch; like someone punching you in the face, then asking what they could do to help stop the bleeding.

Digby:
... all mouth and no trousers.
Reminds me of "All hat and no cattle", and other sayings -
all bark and no bite; all bluff and bluster; all booster, no payload; all crown, no filling; all foam, no beer; all ham, no let; all hammer, no nail; all icing, no cake; all lime and salt, no tequila; all mouth and no trousers; all mouth and trousers; all shot, no powder; all sizzle and no steak; all talk; all talk and no action; all wax and no wick; all motion and no meat; all show, no go.

Byrne on "Moral Superiority":
Now how d’ye suppose one hundred and fifty thousand British keep control of three hundred million Indians?’ ... ‘Moral superiority.’ He let the phrase sink in. ‘For such a small number to rule over so many, the rulers need to project an aura of superiority over the ruled. Not just physical or military superiority mind, but also moral superiority. More importantly, their subjects must in turn believe themselves to be inferior; that they need to be ruled for their own benefit. ... Why else would we build that bloody great monstrosity the Victoria Memorial out of white marble and make it bigger than the Taj Mahal?'

The Victoria Memorial, Calcutta



The Infamous Black Hole of Calcutta was at Fort William.



As Sam, Digby and Bannerjee search for the truth ....
April 13, 1919, Amritsar. This was Baisakhi Day. That evening, a little after 5 pm, Brigadier General Dyer had ordered his small troop of soldiers to fire indiscriminately and without warning at a crowd of more than 20,000 people — men, women and children — who had gathered at Jallianwala Bagh. The official death toll was 379 but given the size of the gathering, the actual toll could well have been over a thousand.

Brigadier General Dyer, "The Butcher of Amritsar"


.

A truly fabulous evening with masters Robert Crais, Joseph Knox and Abir Mukherjee at Waterstones in Staines -

Full size image

Notes:
1.0% "... apparently, Mukherjee became a noir fan after a friend forced him to read Gorky Park. Good choice."

4.0% "... already Very Good! This was recommended to me by Joseph Knox, author of the extraordinary Sirens and The Smiling Man "

30.0% "... terrific. So nice to find an intelligent, interesting book with fine prose."
.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars for book 1 in an excellent historical fiction mystery series, set in 1919-20s colonial Calcutta. Sam Wyndham is a WWI veteran who was severely wounded in battle. His wife dies during the flu epidemic while he is in a coma. His goes back to his pre war duties as a detective at Scotland Yard, but his heart is not in it. He is offered a position in the Imperial Police Force in Calcutta,India. He accepts, deciding that he needs a fresh start.
I recently read book 6 in this series, and I have decided to read the rest of the series based on the recommendation of GoodReads friend Peggy. This book opens with Sam called to the scene of a murder of a senior British official. He does solve the murder with the help of Sergeant Bannerjee, one of the few Indians recruited into the Imperial Police. There are many twists and turns in this mystery, with multiple suspects. I did not suspect the killer until the end.
One quote describing the Writers' Building, headquarters of the Imperial government: "The word that best described it was awesome. For that was its purpose: to inspire awe in all who saw it, but mainly in the natives. It was certainly formidable. Four storeys high and about two hundred yards long, with massive plinths and huge columns topped off with statues of the gods. Not Indian gods, of course."
This was an inter library loan book.

[Phrynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well I have come to this series late but at least that means I have four more ready to read and that is a good thing because A Rising Man is excellent.

Captain Sam Wyndham is a Scotland Yard detective damaged, in the way of many men in 1919, by his experiences in the war, the loss of his wife to Spanish flu, and an addiction to the opium used in his medical care. He moves to Calcutta and joins the Police force there in an attempt to begin a new life.

The book opens with a murder which Sam is determined to solve despite huge obstacles along the way. He is assisted by Sergeant Banerjee who turns out to be a really likeable offsider, kept busy mostly in trying to keep Sam alive. The two develop an entertaining partnership.

The author writes exceedingly well and creates the atmosphere of Calcutta under the Raj perfectly. The heat, the humidity, the crowded streets are palpable and the extreme differences in the way people lived was made very clear. I can see that Sam, with his slightly more moderate views on life, is going to have a few very serious struggles along the way. I am very much looking forward to reading the next book!

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting debut, but one that suffers from unevenness in plot and characterisation.

Despite being touted as the wonder kid, it turns out that Sam Wyndham is actually a bit thick- he spends a good deal of time aggressively accusing everyone of murder save the one person who actually did it. They might share a taste for narcotics, but Sherlock Holmes he is not. The investigative technique is best imagined as him bouncing off walls until finally someone else tells him whodunit. With added shouting. His attitude towards the 'natives' is changeable, representing the spectrum from understanding the fight for freedom to being annoyed at his Sergeant's uppity responses. Now that in itself isn't a problem, people are anything but constant in their opinions and this is about his growth as much as anything else, but added to the bizarre choices made with regards to the 'detecting' it made me wonder whether the author really had a hold of his character.

Saying that, the setting was energising and there was enough commentary about the role of Empire to make it more than just another crime novel. I'm definitely going to see what comes next.

[H (trying to keep up with GR friends) Balikov · Rating 4 out of 5]

The time is 1919 and the British Empire is already showing the cracks that will result in many “colonies” taking their independence over the coming 50 years (This is the subject of several episodes of (made for TV/streaming) The Crown.).

Author Mukherjee plunks us down in Calcutta with a dead body. “The body lay twisted, face up and half submerged in an open sewer. Throat cut, limbs at unnatural angles, and a large brown bloodstain on a starched white dress shirt. Some fingers were missing from one mangled hand and an eye had been pecked out its socket --- this final indignity the work of hulking black crows who even now kept angry vigil from the rooftops above. All in all, not a very dignified end…Still, I’d seen worse.

The “I” is Captain Sam Wyndham, a former detective in London’s police and the new man on Calcutta’s police force who has working for him, Inspector Digby (who was passed over in the hiring of Wyndham) and Sergeant Banerjee (one of a handful of native Indian men just allowed to join the force). The body is of a British official and it comes complete with a note (on fine paper stock placed in the mouth of the deceased) that states: “No more warnings, English blood will run in the streets. Quit India!”

After the opening scene it isn’t long before we are privy to the backstories of both Wyndham and Banerjee. Muikherjee provides the right amount of detail to allow our interest to steep while not impeding the pace of the story. He also shares the perspectives of all involved and the prejudices that go along with that.

“You know how Americans are, so proud of their republic but then so quick to fawn over anyone with a title. I’ve often thought I’d have made a lot more money out of Americans if I’d been born a lord.”

And
“…Captain. It is a good idea, at least on paper. Make some concessions, let the Indians gradually take over some of the responsibility for running this country so that one day, they can take their seat at the table o’ nations in the empire, beside Australia and Canada and the like. But in practice? You have to remember that the Indian is an Asiatic. He cannae be relied on in the way you could an Australian or a Canadian – or even a South Afriacan, for that matter. All that our reforms have done is open a Pandora’s box. We’ve given them a taste o’ power and rather than being grateful, all they want is more, and then more still. The won’t be satisfied until they control everything we’ve built here.”

And
“It was the impudence of it all that they couldn’t understand. How, after everything they’d done for this land, could the natives have the effrontery to want to send them all packing back to Blighty? At the heart of it, I recognised the real fear. Mrs. Tebbit and her kind might think of themselves as British, but India was the only life they really knew…They were like a hybrid flower transplanted to India and acclimatised to such an extent that if returned to Britain, it’d probably wither and die.”

And
“It was seductively easy to fall into the casual racism upon which the whole place seemed built. I’d done it myself only a few hours earlier. It was insidious.
“I’m serious,” I said, as much to convince myself as her.
“Of course, Sam. You’re not like all the others. YOU’RE different…”
“What was I supposed to say? Protest that I really WAS different? I feared I mightn’t be that different anyway.”


Sam Whynham fits the outline of our tarnished heroes: “Locking the door, I sat on the bed and contemplated taking a morphine tablet. It was tempting, but first I needed to think. This was no time for drugs. Drink, on the other hand…I reached for the whisky bottle on the floor beside me. There wasn’t much left. Nevertheless I picked it up and poured out a measure. Taking a sip, I lay back and rested the glass on my chest. I needed to make sense of it all, and whisky generally helped.”

Come for the mystery; leave with a better sense of what India was all about circa 1919.


*Wyndham’s drink of choice is single malt whisky. The author makes it seem the most natural choice but in 1919 it was not nearly as popular as it became over 50 years later.

[Alexis Hall]

I think this was one of those “oh this looks interesting” Bookbub purchases that I generally come to regret. Though not in this case because I really enjoyed this, despite mystery not really being a natural genre fit for me. That being the case, I will probably say naïve/ignorance things about detective stories in general in a misguided attempt to communicate why I thought this was a good one.

Basically, I was all here for the setting: Calcutta in 1919, in the semi-waning days of the Raj. What the fuck do I know, but it feels so well-evoked—the geography, the politics, the corruption that feels like a grotesque inevitability of, y’know, occupying someone else’s country and spending the best part of century justifying your right to be there. God, this was an uncomfortable read. I mean, uncomfortable in the necessary sense of “the history of my country is fucked up.”

The protagonist, Sam Wyndham, comes to Calcutta seeking a fresh start following traumatic war and dead wife experiences. Not long after he arrives, the body of an aide to the LG is discovered in an alley near a brothel, his mouth stuffed with a note warning the British to leave India. Cue, uh, mystery-solving activities? But the case is a wonderful vehicle by which to introduce both Sam, and the reader, to Calcutta, its powers, its secrets and its injustices. Sam’s an interesting choice of protagonist, a good cop and a flawed man—who, despite his best intentions, is far from perfect either his understanding of or attitude to the complexities of either Calcutta or its people. Particularly, his relationship (err, non-romantic relationship, this be a mystery, not a romance) with the Indian-born but British-education Sergeant Banerjee. One of the major plot points is the book is the fact it doesn’t bloody well occur to Sam to show the note, found in the dead guy’s mouth, to the non-British guy he is working with: which was both frustrating but also felt kind of appropriate.

There’s also a noir-ish feel to the book that I really appreciated: Sam’s an unreliable protagonist (being an opium addict, with a weakness for beautiful women), the world is a corrupt place full of corrupt people, and while we do find out “whodunnit” in the end, motivates are personal and grubby, and there’s hardly the comforting sense of order restored one gets from the English detective tradition. But this feels right too: you can’t really have order restored in the face of a massive cultural injustice.

The only thing I wasn’t … wholly sold on was the portrayal of women. There aren’t many of them, just Sam’s Tragically Dead Wife who was apparently an amazing intellectual everyone wanted to bang, and Miss Grant, an Anglo-Indian who falls perilously close to the femme fatale archetype (albeit she has far more reason for her actions than a nebulous sense that femmes just gonna fatale). And I think Sam has … I guess … what you might expect 1919 attitudes to women to be? But when everything, and everyone else, even the explicitly racist Digby, are presented with some degree of nuance it just felt like an odd note to strike.

But anyway. Super enjoyed this. Felt shitty about the history of my country. Yay.

[Margaret M - (having a challenging time and on GR as much as I can) · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Rising Man is a great historical fiction crime novel set in India in the 1919 when law and order was open to interpretation, it was swift and sometimes applied only to those the state wanted to find guilty. The British / Indian relationship, the hope of independence and the Political instability in the country created a fascinating backdrop for a great crime thriller and when combined with all the vivid colours smells and tastes found in India, it just added the right amount of spice to give it 5 stars.

MacAuley a prominent figure in India and an integral part of the machinery of government in Bengal is dead. His throat has been slit and his body dumped in a river with a note in his mouth of a warning to the British to quit India. Wyndham, having newly arrived in India, has been recruited to head up the murder investigation, the “proverbial baptism of fire” and an unlikely choice given the seasoned inspectors in Calcutta to whom Lord Taggart could have turned.

What we have is a man who was potentially going to hang for crimes that the police were not wholly convinced he was guilty of, because it was going to be easier to convict him than to find him innocent. Part of the Political movement to fight for India’s freedom, Sen had a bounty on his head for his part in the violence, loss of life and crimes committed in the name of freedom. We have the suicide of a woman, who saw the victims murder, whose death scene looked more like a prison hanging although it shouldn’t have. The assassination of MacAuley that was just the first sign of a much bloodier campaign and an arms deal.

Wyndham’s investigation takes him and his partner into the dark underbelly of India to the wealthy palaces and homes of the British hierarchy and the upper caste. Yet what troubles Wyndham the most is the impartiality of the law, for the justification of ruling India rested in the principles of unprejudiced British justice and the rule of law. Yet corruption was rife in both sides of Calcutta’s inhabitants, so who was ever really innocent or guilty and of what?.

This was a fast-paced thriller, where every plot and subplot was relevant, absorbing and gripping. The characters at play were fascinating, the thrill was thrilling, and the suspense was palpable. There was just enough detail of the historical period, the political setting, and in the descriptions of the sights, sounds, smells and vivid colours of India without over doing it. Such as well balanced, well researched and well written book with all the intrigue you need for a great thriller with an engrossing historical landscape. A highly recommended book.

[K.J. Charles]

This was a fascinating read--murder mystery set in Calcutta, 1919. The detail and atmosphere are outstanding, particularly the sequence after the Amritsar massacre, as the news spreads across India. Author doesn't hold back on the racism, both casual and vituperative, the cultural sneers, or the sexism of the time, so it's a powerful read. The moral corruption caused by the Raj is a major theme: showing how initially decent people slide into bigotry and how the system promotes it in them.

It's pretty clearly a first novel--lot of info dumping (which you can get away with to an extent when it's real and fascinating), writing clunks a bit at points, and the murderer was pretty obvious in an inevitable trope role way. But the voice is great, the world compelling, there are some laugh/gasp out loud bits, and some passages that really show what the author has in him. Definitely recommended as an exciting new voice and a vivid picture of a shameful bit of history for Britain.

[Ingrid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book.
It was a bit of a slow starter, but as soon as it picked up I really began to enjoy it. The Indian history was interesting and I got the feel of Calcutta, including the heat. Sam Wyndham is a very likeable character.

[Malia · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars
This is the first entry in what promises to be an engaging series! I liked Sam as a protagonist and look forward to reading more about him in the following books. The star of this story, however, was not so much the character or even the mystery - which I have to admit, I guessed early on. It is the author's rendering of 1918 Calcutta. He built the atmosphere and set the scene so vividly and I was absorbed by the story largely because of this. Recommended for fans of historical fiction or the armchair traveler:-)
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[Liz Barnsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Historical Crime Fiction has to be bang on the money for me to love it as it is not my favourite genre to dive into, I like DNA and technology and all that jazz- well what can I say. A Rising Man IS bang on the money in every single way you can possibly think of. And then probably a few more too.

From the very start I was hook line and sinkered into this one – beautifully portraying a place and time, brilliantly authentic and multi layered characters and a real page turner of a murder mystery, A Rising Man really hit the spot when it comes to my reading addiction. It has taken me ages to get to it and that’ll teach me. Although hopefully now it means I’m closer to the next in the series. Clouds. Silver linings. All that.

Full of rich detail and endlessly compelling, the writing here is sublime. The historical facts interwoven with the fictional story, hitting perfect pitch when it comes to pacing, I’m a little in awe of how easily and how completely I lived in this world during the reading of it. Oh I could probably bang on a bit about the plot detail and tell you stuff but really there is no need when all you have to do is pick this one up and live it for yourself.

I’d do it if I were you. I’m just saying. Some books feed into the reasons why we read. A Rising Man is one of those. Loved it.

HIGHLY recommended. With capital letters and everything.

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1919, Calcutta is a city teeming of humidity and discontent. Alexander MacAuley, a high ranking Indian Civil Servant, is found dead in an alleyway in Black Town with a note stuffed in his mouth warning the English to leave India. The Scotsman was a fixer for those in the government and a wealthy fellow Scotsman rubber and jute baron. The Bengalis seek to overthrow the English rule. Bengali terrorists are suspected. Newly arrived Captain Sam Wyndham is sent to investigate and faces obstacles both of nature and native. Accompanying Wyndham are his two subordinates, overbearing and 10-year veteran of the Imperial Police Force Inspector Digby and observant and local Sergeant Surrender-not Banerjee. The former Scotland Yard detective and war veteran is struggling from his own losses while trying to traverse the varying interests of the Commissioner of Police Lord Charles Taggart (his boss); Lieutenant Governor of Bengal and deputy to the Viceroy of India; the jute baron James Buchan; Colonel Dawson, who is the head of the army’s intelligence branch, Section H; MacAuley’s secretary Annie Grant; the English; the Indians; and others. Who is the rising man? The victim, Alexander MacAuley? Sen, a suspected Bengali terrorist? Enjoyable debut for a series filled with atmosphere, plot, and memorable characters.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A new series for me set in 1919 India in the year where a few historical events took place which likely changed the course of British rule in India. Will the story touch on these events?

We start with a murder & introductions are made to the main players & it’s through Inspector Wyndham that we follow the course of the story. It’s an authentic sounding tale with the British treating the Indians as second-class citizens, servants/lackies for the most part whereas the Indians in turn treat the British with deference which seems in line with most narratives of the era I’ve come across. Wyndham though having come from the trenches & fighting alongside Indian regiments sees them differently & treats the locals with much more respect befriending some of them. I mention this observation first as it comes across from the start & in a ways helps map out the political & cultural landscape of the era where the mystery takes second fiddle.

Wyndham we also find out has his own cross to bare as his backstory is slowly fed to us through the course of the read.

The crime mystery side of things shows Wyndham as the new kid on the block fresh from the homeland & not use to how “things are done” in India. He plays it straight & comes across as fair minded, sometimes at odds with the British pre-conceptions of the natives, crossing swords with the establishment & making a few enemies along the way. I warmed to him in this respect…….. However on the down side…. as the mystery progresses his only form of investigative skills seems to be going around accusing everyone in turn trying to get them to confess to the murder, he also misses a lot of things which his Indian subordinate picks up on who is the real brains of the outfit. We are told that Wyndham comes highly recommended from Scotland yard so his poor judgement & skills must be down to other things like perhaps his narcotic craving……

Amiable enough read & an interesting historical period which Ive studied but not necessarily to great depth in this region so for that reason alone I’ll be looking to continue with the series & hope that it picks up.

3 stars for me as I really enjoyed the historical content but felt let down by the crime mystery element which was laughable at times especially as we neared the ending.

Addendum at Series end.... Ended up being a cracking series which I warmed to greatly

[Roman Clodia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit too slow, a bit too uneven to warrant a higher rating: the narrator/protagonist is all over the place, sometimes buying into the white imperial view of 'natives', at other times offended on their behalf, and then again saying he has no interest in politics... simply not possible if one is a British policeman in 1919 colonial India.

At various points I found modernisms jarring: was 'terrorism' a term in 1919? Or 'casual racism'? Did people go on 'second dates'?

Sam Wyndham is a bit of a fool (e.g. his ridiculous motive for the murder) and the idea of yet another emotionally-traumatised and drug-addicted detective made me yawn.

For all my carping, there's some colour to the background but at heart this is easy-reading stuff. Good for fans of cosies wanting a little more historical substance.

[Jaya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set amidst pre-independent Kolkata, rife with palpable racial, colonial and existential tensions this is a splendidly told murder mystery. Cleverly interwoven historical incidents with fictional characters gives this story a more atmospheric and realistic feel (something that I haven't come across in many Indian historical fictions and have been desperately missing, other than Amitav Ghosh's works tbh).
Most impressive was the extensive visual imagery of the places and locations that the author is able to pull off with his writing. Having visited the city recently, I was able to clearly imagine how it must have looked in those times. Definitely recommended!

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absorbing read set in the stifling heat of Calcutta where social and political tensions are running high. Hatred is never far from the surface in the inequitable society caused by colonial rule. Historical nuggets throughout.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Captain Sam Wyndham takes the offer of a job in Calcutta simply because he really has no idea what to do next. It is 1919 and, having left Scotland Yard to fight in the trenches, Wyndham returned to England to find his wife had died in the influenza outbreak. Now he has replaced warfare in Europe to India at a time of insurgency and insurrection. He owes his position to Lord Charles Taggart, Commissioner of Police and his subordinate, sub-inspector John Digby, is obviously resentful of being passed over for promotion. While Wyndham is still finding his feet in his new surrounding, and coping with a reliance on opium, he finds himself investigating his first case.

Along with Digby and Sergeant, ‘Surrender-Not’, Bannerjee (the first Indian to post in the top three in the police entrance examinations), Wyndham has a murder to solve. Not just any murder though, as the victim is Alexander MacAuley; aide to the Lieutenant Governor. MacAuley is not only had of the finance department in Bengal, but one of the Lieutenant Governor’s inner circle – indeed, his ‘fixer’ and Wyndham is under pressure to solve the case quickly. The main suspect is known terrorist Benoy Sen, said to be back in Calcutta, but gradually Wyndham uncovers a far less palatable truth about the crime…

This really ticks all my boxes for a good historical crime novel. I loved the setting, the characters (especially Wyndham and Bannerjee) and the way the novel was plotted. This has the potential to become a long running series and I hope to be reading more of Captain Wyndham’s adventures in future novels. Lastly, I received a copy of this novel from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

[Karl Jorgenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I may be stretching things to give this five stars, but it's really good on many levels. This is a debut mystery--the author can write, has crafted a clever story, and has set this police-procedural in Calcutta in 1919. I love these exotic time/place mysteries--I learn so much about other cultures. (Of course, they're exotic to me, mundane to somebody else.)
Here, Sam, a captain of police, transfers from Scotland Yard to the Calcutta police force. Britain is clinging to its empire, unable to see the coming conflict: the more they educate and enlighten the natives about equality, justice, the value of education, democracy, the more the natives ask, 'why are we treated like inferiors?' Sam is a good-hearted man, wounded by the death of his wife and his time in the Great War, but he finds himself having to fit into a culture where British means 'overlord' and Bengali means 'servant.'
The plot has wonderful twists, all tied up in the nascent revolution, and in the end, Sam has to live with his choices. This is every-bit as good as any of the Bernie Gunther series (Philip Kerr--different tyrants, different war.)

[Майя Ставитская · Rating 5 out of 5]

4,5 India, 1919, a quarter of a century before the abolition of colonialism and British rule still seems unshakable, but the beginning of the twentieth century was marked by the struggle of the oppressed for their rights all over the world, and the First World War did not pass without a trace for any of the participants - the imperial throne is already wobbling and creaking.

Detective Sam Wyndham arrives in town at the invitation of the newly appointed head of the department, an official who knew him from his work at Scotland Yard. Behind the shoulders of this still young man is a police service, a war (he is such a guy from a Lost generation, like the heroes of the Remark), the loss of a beloved woman who died from a "Spanish flu", a wound and morphine addiction that developed during the rehabilitation period.

That is, in fact, the main character is assembled from cliches, which would be a disadvantage if Abir Mukherjee's book were a psychological or philosophical novel with a claim to bollitra, but here we have a conditionally low genre, which recognizability of situations only benefits - there is no need to distract from the main action and dive into exotic realities on the tortuous inner world a hero.

In fact, "A Man with a great Future" is to a much greater extent a psychological, social and even philosophical novel, where the "serious" component: racial segregation, the social aspect, the female issue are masterfully camouflaged by a detective, partly love-friendly line, the theme of the hero's drug addiction and bright ethnic decor.

An excellent detective with cool dialogues, witty and at the same time imbued with sadness for those who remember what accompanied the liberation of India from colonial oppression.


Калькутта - место Кали
У входа стоял деревянный знак: "Собаки и индийцы не допускаются".
- Не беспокойтесь, сэр, мы, индийцы, знаем своё место. Ведь действительно, британская цивилизация за полтора века достигла такого, на что нам не хватило и четырёх тысяч лет с лишним. Нам так и не удалось научить собак читать.
Индия, 1919, до отмены колониализма четверть века и британское господство еще кажется незыблемым, но начало ХХ во всем мире ознаменовалось борьбой угнетенных за свои права, а Первая Мировая ни для кого из участников не прошла бесследно - имперский трон уже шатается и скрипит.

Мы побывали на западе Индии, в Бомбее с "Шантарамом", на севере с "Маковым морем". Идем на Восток! Калькутта, столица Бенгалии, второй по площади и третий по численности населения город страны и культурная столица. Имперскость в архитектуре, всюду латинские названия - археолог мог бы заключить, что город построен не англичанами, а итальянцами. Ну, построен-то он, положим, безымянными индийцами, но вы поняли - кости безымянных русских крестьян в основании Питера не мешают считать, что построен он Петром.

Детектив Сэм Уиндем прибывает в город по приглашению недавно назначенного главой департамента чиновника, который знал его по работе в Скотлаенд-Ярде. За плечами у этого, еще молодого, человека служба в полиции, война (он такой парень из Потерянного поколения, как герои Ремарка), утрата любимой женщины, умершей от "испанки", ранение и развившаяся в реабилитационный период морфиновая зависимость.

То есть, по сути, главный герой собран из клише, что было бы недостатком, будь книга Абира Мукерджи психологическим или философским романом с претензией на боллитру, но здесь у нас условно низкий жанр, которому узнаваемость ситуаций лишь на пользу - не нужно отвлекаться от основного действия и погружения в экзотические реалии на извилистый внутренний мир героя.

Тотчас по прибытии Сэм вынужден расследовать убийство чиновника из англичан, обстоятельства смерти указывают, что преступление - дело рук террористов из местного освободительного движения, на поиск главаря которых брошены все силы и очень скоро его удаётся схватить. Вот только Сэм сомневается, что виноват именно он, а вскоре сомнение перерастает в уверенность.

На самом деле "Человек с большим будущим" в куда большей степени психологический, социальный и даже философский роман, где "серьёзная" составляющая: расовая сегрегация, социальный аспект, женский вопрос - мастерски закамуфлированы детективной, отчасти любовно-дружеской линией, темой наркозависимости героя и ярким этническим декором.

Отличный детектив с классными диалогами, остроумный и одновременно проникнутый грустью для тех, кто помнит, чем сопровождалось освобождение Индии от колониального гнета.

[cypt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Koks fainas detektyvas! Bet su sąlyga - jei prasiskverbi pro pirmus 100 psl, kur nieko nevyksta, tik didžiulis intro apie Indiją. Buvo sunku ir vis galvojau mesti, bet neleidau sau, nes Drazdauskienė neverčia beliberdų. Ir vertėjo pasikankinti, paskui tikrai smagiai keliavau su tradiciniškai dviem protingesniu ir mažiau protingu detektyvais.

XX a. pradžia, Europoj praėjo pirmas pasaulinis, jame nukentėjęs detektyvas Semas Vindemas komandiruojamas į Indiją (ar pats komandiruojasi? apie tą rašo tame 100-e psl, kur pramiegojau), čia britai sėkmingai užsiiminėja rasizmu ir "valdo" vietinius. Nusikaltimai, tyrimai, meilės istorijos, etnokontekstas - viskas yra.

Patikusių ir nepatikusių dalykų - "pem ant pem".

PATIKO
1. Beveik hardboilinis detektyvo personažas - labiau veiksmo nei minties žmogus, visą mąstymą atlieka jo padėjėjas. Aišku, knygos gale jie kaip Holmsas su Vatsonu apsigyvena kartu, ir tai motyvuoja skaityt kitas Mukherjee knygas. Teks skaityt.

2. Pasakotojo ironija visai visko atžvilgiu (tiek šalutinių, tiek pagrindinių veikėjų) labai pagyvina reikalą. Pvz:

Egzistavo visos galimybės, kad bus skanu, panašiai kaip yra visos galimybės, kad varlė, tinkamomis aplinkybėmis ją pabučiavus, taps karalaite. (p. 349-350)

3. Tyrimas, kur yra ką tirti: daugiasluoksnė politika, daugialypiai motyvai, atrodo, kiekvienas žmogus turi turėt belekiek motyvų ką nors nusikalstamo veikti - ir veikia.

4. Neslepiamas šiandienos žvilgsnis į istoriją: detektyvas, kurio balsu ir pasakojama istorija, susirūpinęs rasizmu ir institucine nelygybe, palaiko moteris, siekiančias karjeros. Atrodo labai hipsteriškai, bet sykiu ir mielai, skaitydama vis galvojau, kad nenorėčiau čia girdėti rasisto sadisto pasakojimo (jau ir taip vis nesėkmingai bandau skaityti American Psycho, ačiū).

NEPATIKO
1. Indija. Jos labai daug, ne tiek, kiek Didžiausios laimės ministerijoje, bet pas Arundhati Roy, skaitai ir jauti, tam yra politinė prasmė. Čia Indija - tiesiog spalvotas eksterjeras, kuris arba patinka arba nea. Man nea.

2. Kad knygoje pasitelkta, po iškrypėlių psichopatų, bene dažniausia schemutė: abstraktusis nusikaltėlis, sisteminis smurtas, atliekamas tų, kurie turi galios poziciją (yra valdžioj). Šitą jau X-failai smarkiai paplėtojo ir toliau plėtoja visi konspiracijų teoretikai, įskaitant "Antrąją Lietuvą", tai kažkaip šiandien jau nebesinorėjo. Kita vertus, istoriniame kontekste, okupuotoje valstybėje tokia schema dar ir kaip tinka. Bet trečia vertus - tame kontekste, kur tokia schema (okupantas nedorėlis) yra tikėtiniausia, - ar tikrai įdomiausia būtent ją ir pasitelkti? Nepatiko.

3. Kai staiga netyčia visi nusikaltėliai pasirodo besantys iš detektyvo aplinkos. Kaip patogu!!!! Koks sutapimas!!!!

4. Kai išaiškini žudiką, jis VISKĄ tau papasakoja, net tai, ko tu nesupratai! Koks doras!

[John McDermott · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

16/01/22 : A Rising Man is this month's choice on BBC Radio 4's Book Club. A very good listen for all fans of the series.

[Veronique · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75*

The vagaries of choosing what to read... I found out about this series from reviews of the second book, which apparently was being well received. Off I went to get the first title, and as it happens, I tore through the novel in two days.

Historical crime novels rely on making the setting real to the reader and Mukherjee makes a good job of it. Here we have Calcutta of 1919, sweltering, and full of corruption. Yes, there were quite a few 'telling’ sessions but I didn’t mind them since the atmosphere was so palpable. Moreover, the author created a fascinating voice in that of Captain Sam Wyndham, a man trying to put himself back together after the horrors of war and of losing his wife. Through his eyes, we get a view of this microcosm as well as of his inner turmoils. Wyndham is a decent enough man, if a ‘damaged’ one, but although he sees the racism and injustice around him, and tries to fight it, he himself is a product of this time and sometimes falls prey to its prejudices, making him the more believable.

With such strong characterisation, the crime solving side paled a bit, especially since a couple of elements were obvious. Still, I really enjoyed this and shall start the second instalment very soon.

[Antonomasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

ARC review
[3.5] Historical crime debut, set in Calcutta in 1919. Has a few clunks, but it's better-written, and more intelligent about its setting, than the average first procedural, making it evident why the author won a competition for unpublished novelists. (It also helps that the infodumps are really interesting.) This could settle in nicely as a series in a book or two's time.

Sam Wyndham is a thirtysomething Scotland Yard detective and veteran of the trenches. After his wife dies in the 1918 influenza pandemic, he feels there's nothing left for him in England, and accepts a posting to India where Calcutta police chief Lord Taggart (see wot the author did there) is looking for a new broom. On top of all that, he's trying to kick a morphine habit. The modernity of some of his opinions, and occasionally his vocab, can seem out of time, but his views start to gel more than jar as it becomes evident that his disillusionment is also related to the Great War and the way that it made more of the public question those in power - and when he displays a few opinions more "of his time" and finds himself succumbing periodically to the entrenched habits of hierarchy in India. One of the strong points of Mukherjee's writing is good metaphors that fit the character's environment; occasionally they stretch too far, but that's all part of flexing one's muscles as a writer - and as the book wore on, metaphors became an excellent way of situating the character. Plenty has been said about the 'ventriloquism' of white Western authors writing BAME/PoC characters, and this book could be seen as one of the responses to or mirror images of that: the best part of this perhaps being the deftly selected metaphors in which Sam tries to have affinity with his environment but sometimes ends up rude and insensitive: saying that he felt as 'worn out as a rickshaw-wallah's shoes' (the rickshaw guys don't even have beds to sleep in), and that an Indian he honestly likes was 'grinning like a chimp'.

He shares traits with the archetypal fictional police detective - and echoes of several specific ones came through. The Holmes/addiction trope is a perennial, so I was perhaps most surprised by the cross-genre one, a Sam who believes the best way to know a city is on one's feet, and whose team includes an officer with a comically Puritan sounding name... but then what British geek hasn't read a bit of Discworld? The setting was interesting and well-used enough, and Wyndham still had enough zeal and naivety and propensity for self-examination, that he didn't feel quite the same as the usual cynical, grizzled old gumshoe. His environment means that he must accept more compromises than the typical British or American based crime-fiction hero; they may be grimmer compromises than most of his readers will have had to make, but the inability to fulfil ideals makes it feel more like real-life employment, and chimed with this article I'd just been reading about incremental change and race.

I am from that generation that fell between those who still heard about the Empire at school and in kids' non-fiction, and the later cohort who had a fairly multicultural curriculum acknowledging varying viewpoints on this history, so I picked up almost nothing about the British Raj outside films, fiction and other private reading. It was, in retrospect, an embarrassed silence whilst mainstream British culture tried to work out what to say - meaning an awful lot here was new to me.

Sam is from London, but a fan of specific Scotch whiskies; a number of supporting characters have Scottish roots, plus there are a number of interesting factoids mentioned that relate to Scotland. Within a few pages of the start, I would have bet that the author had Scottish connections - later looked at the bio and sure enough, he had lived in Glasgow. He has an excellent ear for the patterns of Scottish speech without using an excess of dialect words. Sam certainly manages not to live in an English expat enclave; when he's not surrounded by Scots, he spends time with, among others, an Anglo-Indian woman, his Cambridge-educated Sergeant, Banerjee (one of the several "rising men" in this book) and a Muslim rickshaw driver. There are quite a few names that jump out as oblique cultural references; I could hardly not imagine landlord Colonel Tebbit to look a lot like politician Norman, and a Buchan in an interwar crime adventure, well... And perhaps calling the rickshaw driver Salman could be seen as a reference to Rushdie opening the way for later Indian subcontinental and British Asian writers.

One Goodreads reviewer says they figured out the villain early on, but I found the story interesting enough that I didn't feel a need to guess off my own bat. The politics, culture and historical detail of the setting make this mystery even more about the journey than the destination. I probably spent more time wondering or marvelling that bayonets might have been as strong as in one of the most action-packed of scenes in the book, than I did trying to race ahead with a solution.

For a while I'd been interested in reading some crime fiction set outside Europe and North America, by an author with roots in the region where it was set. This - by a British author with an Indian background, who attended one of the most competitive English universities - delivered and more, with the sense of a detailed insider perspective on two cultures simultaneously, and a lead character with one foot in and one foot out of the establishment.

I started this at a time when I didn't especially feel like reading anything (and took so long to pick it, or any other ARC, back up again that if Netgalley was a job I'd have been sacked) but when I returned to it, I completed the other 90% over a couple of days when I was doing plenty else apart from reading. It was both interesting and low effort, with a bit of dry humour to leaven the serious circumstances. It had plenty of intelligent things to say about the political situation, whilst not requiring the level of concentration and awake-ness of a serious non-fiction history, and gave more to think about than the average procedural that vaguely touches on social issues - something I very much liked. I would certainly consider reading sequels.

This was a free advance review copy from Netgalley and the publisher, Harvill Secker (part of Penguin Random House UK).

[Raquel Estebaran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thriller ambientado en la Calcuta de 1919, bajo el dominio de los británicos y donde un detective recién llegado, inteligente, cínico y resabiado por sus experiencias en la guerra, retrata vívida y magníficamente la ciudad y nos muestra sus impresiones de la atmósfera política y social. Además de lidiar con la resolución de un asesinato.

Muy bien narrado, con una ambientación original, buenos personajes y una trama interesante.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4⭐️= Good.
Paperback.
#1 in this series.
Now, I’ve never been to India and I’m not a huge lover of travelling- but through books I experience my own form of travel. This book was a classic example of this- taking me to the smells and sights of India.
I really enjoyed reading about the different characters and loved the complex main character .
Really looking forward to reading #2.

[Aditya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am probably the most prolific crime fiction reader (reviewer) in India. And if not, then I certainly hold that title in Kolkata. So as the only award winning crime series set in my city, I should have sought out The Rising Man sooner. This is the best debut I have read since Tana French's In The Woods. It deservedly won the Historical Dagger and was also nominated in best novel category for both Edgar and Dagger awards losing to Bluebird, Bluebird and The Dry respectively. Having read all three, I will say this one is my personal favorite.

The best part of the book is the setting - an authentic recreation of post first world war Kolkata. Mukherjee has never lived in the city but he really nails the atmosphere from the seedy streets in the poorest parts of the town to the ostentatious displays of the nouveau riche. He also gets the diverse attitudes towards the British right which ranged from servile deference to righteous hatred. A lot of his insights about the the Indian psyche and society is pertinent even hundred years later. Mukherjee posits the British ruled over Indians though they were greatly outnumbered because of misplaced moral superiority. Even now in a second tier city, the locals will gawk at a Caucasian like star stuck fans fawning over the next big thing at Comic Con. He is similar astute about Bengalis - the native ethnic group of Kolkata. He calls them effete intellectuals. Today the rest of India generalize them as pseudo intellectuals.

Besides the local flavor, The Rising Man also has a great lead - Sam Wyndham, a war veteran whose life has left him tortured, cynical and addicted to morphine. Change the war and the addiction and that describes a lot of iconic crime protagonists. Mukherjee gets the cynical aspect of his protagonist right but the tortured part was forced. Wyndham walks the thin line of being casually racist without being outright vile and bigoted or too liberal and anachronistic. He has an obligation towards the truth but he is not naive enough to stay indebted to it. His sidekick Banerjee is even more relatable. An intelligent young man whose shy, polite nature hides a fierce determination and loyalty.

The plot has the detectives investigating the murder of a high ranking British administrator and an armed robbery. There is also a subplot of a revolutionary - Benoy Sen stirring up something big. They intersect sporadically. The murder mystery has a nice resolution and the plot references the more notable real life incidents from the time further adding to the atmosphere. There is a token love interest for Wyndham. She is generic but still fun.

There are a couple of areas where Mukherjee makes minor missteps. They feel like first book blues and errors that will be polished the more he writes. The solution for the armed robbery feels too much like a coincidence. There are a few vernacular words used, does not matter to me but might bother some. And the revolutionary Sen talks about equality and justice in a way that is 2019 rather than 1919. His dialogue felt like the author was preaching. But those are minor quibbles and for a debut it is still uncharacteristically accomplished.

A behind the scenes look at political power play in Raj era Bengal, a competent police procedural with great characters all played out on the backdrop of a brilliantly realised unique setting. If the rest of the series maintain this quality, this is the start of something special. Rating - 4/5

PS. 90% of the time, the correct way to pronounce the Bengali male names beginning or ending with 'A' is using an 'O' sound. Coincidentally both my name and the author's fall in the other ten percent. Anyway I shared because that explains the 'Surrender-Not' moniker and I am used to looking up pronounciations. So helping out as the shoe is on the other foot this time.