Abir Mukherjee (1) (1974–)

What I liked about the book: interesting setting, authentic detail about India during British occupation, and a nice plot twist at the end. (Though I always feel like it's a bit cheat-y when the author doesn't provide the pivotal clue until the end, as happens here.) This delivers on all the basic expectations of the "detective novels set in exotic locales" genre.

Guess I'm just a little bummed because I felt like this could have been so much better. For instance, despite the great opportunity to create interestingly complex characters, Mukherjee sticks to shallow archetypes: the self-loathing detective, the humble/loyal sidekick, the spoiled prince, the feisty female agitator, the beautiful love interest. No one ever engages in any sort of interesting introspection or reflection. Also, the storytelling lags in places due to drab dialog (way too many "let me find that out for you" conversational dead ends) and too many pointless interviews - no actual detective would ask such useless questions or accept such vague answers.

As I've said before, it's hard to criticize a bad author for writing a bad book, but feel like Mukherjee's a competent writer who, with a bit more effort, could have made more of this promising premise. Maybe his "A Rising Man" (the first book in this series, I gather) incorporates some of the richness that's missing here?… (meer)