Book Review: Death in the East

Calcutta police detective Captain Sam Wyndham and his quick-witted Indian Sergeant, Surrender-not Banerjee, are back for another rip-roaring adventure planted in the backdrop of 1920s pre-independent India. A perfect cocktail of murder, mystery and history, Abir Mukherjee writes a thought-provoking rollercoaster that brims with wit and revs up to thriller speed, while conceiving a brilliant tale of murder and deceit set amidst political and social turmoil that's as much a journey into the dark underbelly of the British Empire as it's into the mind of its distinctive protagonist Sam Wyndham, who must now face up to a force of evil from his past, from a time so far removed from the present, when he was a young constable and hopelessly in love. Although Wyndham's assistant, Banerjee, appears fairly late into the story, the shifting power dynamic between the two is fascinating, while also reflecting the country's growing frustrations with the British rule. Alternating between two different time periods and two different countries, Mukherjee's Death in the East has it all — an intriguing locked-room riddle, mysterious deaths, and a truly ingenious solution that would make Agatha Christie beam with pride.