Smoke and Ashes
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By Abir Mukherjee
avg rating
1 review
- A THE SUNDAY TIMES 100 BEST CRIME NOVELS SINCE 1945**
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‘Smoke and Ashes is Abir Mukherjee’s best book yet; a brilliantly conceived murder mystery set amidst political and social turmoil – beautifully crafted’ C.J. Sansom
India, 1921. Captain Sam Wyndham is battling a serious addiction to opium that he must keep secret from his superiors in the Calcutta police force.
But Wyndham finds himself in a tight spot when he stumbles across a corpse in an opium den. When he then comes across a second body bearing the same injuries, Wyndham is convinced that there’s a deranged killer on the loose.
However, revealing his presence in the opium den could cost him his career.
As Wyndham and Sergeant ‘Surrender-not’ Banerjee set out to solve the two murders, Wyndham must tread carefully, keeping his personal demons secret, before someone else turns up dead…
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2019 CWA SAPERE HISTORICAL DAGGER
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2019 HWA GOLD CROWN
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2019 CWA GOLD DAGGER
Praise for the Wyndham and Banerjee series:
‘It is the flamboyant evocation of Calcutta that makes this such a mesmerising read’ Guardian
‘A thought-provoking rollercoaster’ Ian Rankin
‘Cracking… A journey into the dark underbelly of the British Raj’ Daily Express
If you enjoyed Smoke and Ashes further books in the Wyndham and Banerjee series are available now:
A Rising Man
A Necessary Evil
Death in the East
The Shadows of Men
Reviews
Set in Calcutta in 1921, this is Book 3 in the multi-award-winning Sam Wyndham series. Wyndham is a British policeman, working in India and battling a serious addiction to opium. In this novel he gets involved in a series of gruesome murders and mutilations. He and his trusty sidekick, ‘Surrender- not’ Banerjee follow the clues but are severely hampered by the secret police who do not want them near the case. Sam and ‘Surrender-not’ are a good team, both clever in their own way, and in spite of Sam’s increasing addiction and Section H’s obstruction, they gradually get to the bottom of the whole nasty affair. I'd never read any of this series before and enjoyed this one so much I immediately searched out Book 1 (A Rising Man). I'm a notoriously hard marker but this deserves nothing less than 4 Stars.
Review by Freyja, Oundle Crime
