Un épisode imbriqué entre les manifestations et une terrible vengeance, mais qui ne tombe pas dans les travers caricaturaux. Réussi. ( )

Abir Mukherjee’s series of novels featuring Captain Sam Wyndham and his Harrow-educated investigative partner, Sergeant ‘Surrender-Not’ Banerjee, in 1920s India goes from strength to strength. This book opens with Captain Wyndham being roused in the opium den he has visited and warned to flee as a police raid is under way. As he escapes over the Calcutta rooftops, he finds a disfigured corpse. Unable to risk waiting to pry further, he flees back home. Imagine his surprise, then, when another murder victim is found bearing the same wounds as the body that Wyndham had more or less stumbled over the previous evening, although owing to the circumstances, he is unable to mention the first case.

Wyndham and Banerjee begin their investigation, but find that they are hampered by the political background as Calcutta grinds to a halt as a consequence of demonstrations led by Mahatma Gandhi and his party. Mukherjee carefully weaves in convincing and compelling historical context, as the British administration awaits a visit by the Prince of Wales (later, briefly, King Edward VIII). Sergeant Banerjee is particularly troubled as one of Gandhi’s leading deputies is his own uncle.

Mukherjee does an excellent job combining robust crime stories with what seems to be sound historical context, conjuring a period about which I was previously lamentably ignorant. The plot fairly rattles along, too, and I found myself completely absorbed by the book, and am now eager for the next instalment. ( )

Well done, Mr. Mukherjee. What makes his books stand out is the thoughtful, vivid history of a time and place, as seen through the eyes of one Anglo man - eyes that are gradually opening to the evils and the triumphs of British-ruled India. Ethnicity, culture, politics and belief systems all come into play as Gandhi's leadership is bringing the impoverished masses to a new awareness of their power. Wyndham's consciousness is beginning to be raised, as his opium habit is spiralling him downward. The quiet, brave, smart Sergeant Banerjee is dealing with his own family and political conflicts. Mukherjee finds fascinating - and sometimes horrifying - historical episodes to weave into his crime stories, which bring them a wider scope beyond just who murdered whom and why.

Wyndham has a tendency to paint groups of people with a broad brush: Bengalis are talkers, Gurkhas are chillingly bold killers, Nepalese or Assamese all look a certain way. Given Mukherkee's mixed cultural background, I'm not quite sure how to take that. I really DO wish that Wyndham would stop referring to young women - independent, self-sufficient women running their own households or jobs - as "girls." But maybe that's just him, and he'll get over it. And maybe get over the irritating Annie Grant as well.

Perfectly enjoyable; looking forward to #4.
( )

Fantastic story, great writing, and a little dose of history thrown in. It's the best book I've read all year. ( )

The Sam & Surrender-Not Saga meets Indian History in 1921
Review of the Vintage paperback edition (2019) of the original hardcover edition (2018)

This reading was part of my investigation of the novels nominated for the 2020 Edgar Awards by the Mystery Writers of America. Smoke and Ashes is a nominee for Best Novel. The winners are expected to be announced April 30, 2020.

I've been following the Captain Sam Wyndham and Sergeant Surendranath (Surrender-Not) Banerjee adventures since the first one A Rising Man (2016) and have enjoyed them immensely. Author Mukherjee has done his best work yet here in Smoke and Ashes which pits Sam and Surrender-Not into a serial-murder investigation set against the backdrop of a 1921 visit to India by the Prince of Wales (the later abdicating Edward VIII) in the midst of Gandhi's Non-Cooperation Movement.

They work to solve the case facing their usual conflicts with the diabolical Section H secret military police unit of the British Raj. Sam continues to battle his opium addiction which he uses to counter his PTSD from the First World War and is still drawn to his unrequited love of Annie Grant. Surrender-Not is put in conflict between his loyalties to family (who support the Non-Cooperation movement) and his duty to his career and his friend.

This was an excellent continuation of the series and shows how it will begin to incorporate the true-life stories of the end of the British Raj and the Indian Independence Movement into the crime mysteries of the duo. I very much look forward to the books yet to come.

Trivia and Link
If you want to get the atmosphere of the Prince of Wales visit to India in 1921 you can view some archival photographs here. ( )