User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
A brilliant addition to Abir Mukherjee's terrific Captain Sam Wyndham historical series set in the turbulent social and political times of an India struggling to throw off the yoke of British colonial rule in the early 1920s. Here we have a narrative that shifts back and forth in time to 1905, to a younger Sam, a police constable stationed at Whitechapel in London's East End. In 1922, Wyndham is in the grip of an opium addiction that he is finally forced to deal with and on the advice of his doctor, he arrives in Assam seeking treatment at a ashram, run by a Hindu holy man and monks, that is known to have some success in dealing with addictions. Sam knows he is going to have to go through hell and he must succeed, they offer only the one opportunity to kick the habit. At the railway station he is startled when he sees a ghost from his past that surely could not be. It is this that brings back his memories of London and Bessie Drummond, a woman he didn't treat well, attacked and later murdered in a locked room within her own home.
This is a East End with its latest influx of Jewish refugees and immigrants, offending English sensibilities by having the nerve to look like one of them. There is anti-immigrant hysteria, whipped up the press, based on blind prejudice, stereotypes and blatant lies. This part of London is desperately impoverished, with its powerful crime brothers, Martin and Wesley Spiller, that locals live in fear of. Initially, the prime suspect is Bessie's violent brute of a husband, but suspicion goes on to fall on a Jewish suspect. Sam harbours doubts but is unable to prevent a terrible miscarriage of justice. In India, Sam finds himself surrounded by an international group of white men looking to throw off their addictions, including the kind and compassionate Jewish Jacob Adler, suffering from a cancerous tumour. Sam becomes drawn to the beautiful Emily Carter who volunteers at the ashram, the wife of the rich and powerful Ronald Carter, who appears to own everything and the premier person of influence in Jatinga, a leading light of the all white British Jatinga Club. Events lead to the arrival of Sergeant Banerjee, leading a possible murder inquiry in a case that is intertwined and connected with Sam and what happened in London in 1905.
This is a atmospheric, beautifully written historical mystery, with a other worldly location in Jatinga, with its ashram, the shocking raining down of suicide birds, fakirs, a place rumoured to be cursed and evil, abounding with passion and rivalries. The British with their petty hierarchies, hypocrisies, and insistence on segregation from the natives, are determined to put down any resistance to their exploitative and murderous rule. They overflow with their unbearable sense of entitlement, the rock solid certainty in their superiority, racist and abusive with a casual and thoughtless abandon. What makes this addition to the series so good is the character development of Banerjee, he has come along in leaps and bounds, acquiring a much warranted confidence, apparent in how he conducts his inquiry.
Banerjee is now more than strong enough to point out Sam's shortcomings as a real friend, opening Sam's eyes to the fact he is just not as liberal as he thinks, that he fails to stand up for Banerjee, and worse, openly urges him to go easy on the British suspects. Sam seriously underestimates Banerjee, a symbolic micro-echo of the troubling relationship between Britain and India. India is inexorably moving towards independence, personified in a Banerjee turning the tables on Sam, a perceptible shift of power in their relationship. Fantastic read that I highly recommend. Many thanks to Random House Vintage for an ARC.
Rating: really liked it
Absolutely love this writer, love this series. Can't wait for the next, already....
Full of character, atmosphere, colour, India, history, great storytelling, what can I say, I'm a big fan of Sam Wyndham, the main and troubled character in this series, and the talented writer Abir Mukherjee. When's the next up? ;-)
Immensly enjoyed this book. Would recommend this series to my goodreads friends any day.
Captain Sam Wyndham, to battle his opium addiction, travels to the hills of Assam, to an ashram of a sainted monk. Alternating, we look back at his starting years at the police in London, confronted by the murder of a young lady of his acquaintance. The past and present in the end come together in India...
Rating: really liked it
This is a splendid, atmospheric addition to the previous three books featuring Captain Sam Wyndham and Indian Sergeant Surendranath 'Surrender-not' Banerjee of the Imperial Police Force in Calcutta.
The stories are set in the turbulent 1920s in India. India is considered the Jewel in the Crown of the British Empire. Its people are struggling for self-rule, free from British colonial occupation. The British feel entitled and superior to the natives and feel the Indian people have neither the capacity nor the capability of governing themselves without British control and wisdom. In their segregated social clubs, the British fear their time in India is running out but want to forestall any independence movement.
This well-researched historical novel is told in two timelines and contains two clever locked-room mysteries and plenty of intrigue and suspense. It explores India's culture and religion and the lifestyles of the British living and working there with their superior attitudes and prejudice. In 1905, Captain Sam Wyndham was a young policeman in London's impoverished East End. There is an undercurrent of anti-immigrant bigotry inflamed by the press, especially towards the Jews and their businesses. One evening Wyndham sees an old flame from his past on the street. She is Bessie Drummond, whom he treated badly. He observes Bessie being beaten in the streets. The next day she is found in her room bludgeoned to death. Her room was locked from the inside.
She lived in a run-down apartment house and worked as a housekeeper for Caine, a powerful, wealthy man who owned the building. She also earned some extra money collecting rent from the tenants. She is married to a brute of a husband who drinks to excess. The Spiller brothers are involved in much criminal activity in the area but are under the direction of Caine, the landlord of the building where Bessie had lived and died. Her husband has an alibi, so suspicion falls on Vogel, a Jewish man living in the same dingy housing complex. The anti-Jew press stirs up hatred towards Vogel. Vogel is in hiding, but Wyndham is told where to find him by the Spiller brothers. Sam makes the arrest, and Vogel is charged and convicted of the murder and sentenced to death while proclaiming his innocence.
Wyndham begins to feel that Vogel is innocent, and it is unlikely that a non-Jew would have been convicted on so little evidence. He discovers that Caine's wife was recently found dead in her bed, and Bessie observed some mysterious injuries on her chest. These wounds were omitted from the autopsy and police reports.
In 1922 Captain Sam Wyndham is a member of the Imperial Police Force in Calcutta. He works alongside Sergeant Banerjee. They have become friends and roommates, but Wyndham always exerts control of their investigations, and Banerjee acts in the expected subservient manner towards his partner. Wyndham can understand the desire for home rule but is not without ingrown prejudices. Because of past incidences, such as time in the trenches during WW1 and the death of his wife during the flu epidemic, Sam has fallen deeper into opium addiction. He is a diligent and insightful detective and a witty conversationalist. He is flawed but can be likeable. Should he be exposed for his dependency on opium and would lose his position as a police officer. He is urged by a doctor and Banerjee to seek a cure. He goes to an ashram in the hills of Assam run by a Hindu holy man. He and his monks are known to foster successful recoveries from addictions.
It is a long journey to the ashram in the remote hill country of Assam. At a train station, Wyndham is shocked to see someone from the unresolved 1905 case whom he thought was long dead. He wonders if he is hallucinating due to his intake of opium. He undergoes a painful withdrawal from drugs and, in a sickened state, is guided back to his room by Emily Carter, a lady who volunteers to help at the ashram. A young Belgian who was close to recovery is found drowned, his death written off as an accident. Still, Wyndham wonders if he was murdered due to their similar physical appearance and if the Belgian had been mistaken for him. After being considered cured, Wyndham is permitted to stay in the small nearby town of Jatinga. He has written to Banerjee inviting him to join him.
Jatinga has a haunted, other-worldly aura. Birds fling themselves to the ground by the thousands each year in a mass suicide. Some of the locals believe evil spirits are involved. I thought the author added a touch of the supernatural to his otherwise true, well-researched, historical facts. This is an actual annual phenomenon in the hill town of Jatinga and is described in many internet articles. The town is trying to establish this unpleasant event as a tourist attraction.
On the night of the birds falling from the sky, there was a party at the elaborate home of Emily Carter and her husband, Ronald. Ronald Carter is a man of wealth and influence. He has made enemies in his greedy rise to power. Wyndham suspects he was mistreating his wife, Emily. A number of guests were invited to stay overnight after the party. Carter is found dead in his bed. His room was locked from the inside. ( like Bessie's in 1905 and with similar markings on his chest that Bessie had observed on his dead wife ). The nature of the markings seemed caused by an impossible source anywhere in the vicinity.
Banerjee arrives about 75% through the book, and Wyndham is overjoyed to see him. Local authorities put Banerjee in charge of the investigation into Ronald Carter's murder, an unusual assignment for an Indian sergeant. Banerjee interrogates all members of the household, with Wyndham present. He has gained great confidence and is no longer differential or submissive to the English suspects. After his interviews, Wyndham admonishes him for challenging questions that made the suspects uncomfortable. Banerjee replies by saying he was subject to plenty of racial slurs and bigoted name-calling during his questioning, and Wyndham ignored their prejudices and took them for granted.
He also retorts that Wyndham has never learned to pronounce his name in all their time together, and he finds the Surrender-not nickname offensive. Perhaps this confrontation will make their friendship stronger in the future? Hopefully, it will make Wyndham reflect on their more equal status.
Highly recommended to those who like an excellent historical mystery in an exotic place with significant character development and a vibrant sense of time and place, and set in a time of political, social and religious upheaval. Moving on expectantly to book number 5 in the series.
Rating: really liked it
Fourth in the Sam Wyndham series,
Death in the East continues the trend of Smoke and Ashes in significantly upping its game. It offers a more challenging read, deepening the themes and character relationships, and marking a significant reshaping of both the form and the content of the books. And to top it off, it’s all done through two locked-room murder mysteries that have you guessing right till the end…
‘In the absence of gen (information) on any of them, I decided to fall back on the natural intuition of the Englishman in regard to foreigners. Or to put it another way, I’d rely on deep prejudices, honed over generations’. Captain Sam Wyndham has been a love him AND hate him character right from the beginning. Uncomfortably reflecting the imperious superiority and institutional, intellectual, and cultural racism of the British in India, he’s a man whose words and actions frequently make you cringe. The only reason any kind of connection to his character is possible, and thus any potential for likability, is through the moments in which he reveals a more open side to his nature. Unlike so many of his peers, he does actually see the unfairness of the situation and often highlights the frankly ridiculous and unsupportable ‘supremacy’ of the British and other Europeans/Americans in India with an internal dialogue characterised by a wry humour. But Abir Mukherjee never allows him to step into the role of ‘the good Englishman’, an example of perfect enlightenment who could act as a balm to the otherwise embarrassingly and horrifyingly realistic portrayal of British imperial rule. Each time Sam takes a step forward, we are reminded that prejudices run deep, and are not so easily sidelined. This is particularly evident in his relationship with his subordinate. Sam might take his advice, live with him, and even have his life saved by him, but when push comes to shove, everything reverts right back to standard operating procedure, putting that uppity man in his place.
How dare he question me. Good lord. Whatever next. Sam doesn’t even use his sergeant’s real name, Surendranath Banerjee, instead falling back on the Englishified nickname ‘Surrender-not’, because why should he bother to learn how to say someone’s name if the pronunciation is just a bit too hard…
There’s been little challenge to this status quo until now. But this story is about progress, and honestly, it’s about time. Some changes Sam finally takes upon himself, like dealing with his opium addiction, others are forced upon him, like the negotiation of his relationship with Sergeant Banerjee. Especially now that the ever more fierce struggle for Indian independence is making real waves and undermining the locals’ traditionally deferential attitude towards the British invaders. Certainly, Banerjee’s enthusiasm for taking Sam’s shit is well past over. I can’t wait to see where it takes them both in the future, with the potential of a real friendship becoming a possibility now that some truths have been said aloud. Their relationship is a microcosm of the larger tensions in British/Indian society and Mukherjee doesn’t hold back in dealing with issues like racism, injustice, corruption, and the power of greed. It gives his books that extra something, enough of a kick to make you think seriously about the past and how these issues still resonate today.
The plot perhaps edges into the somewhat unrealistic but it’s more than entertaining enough to let those unlikely coincidences slide. The mirroring is cleverly done: a woman’s death in a locked room in the East End of London in 1905 is reflected in that of a man in the Far East in 1922, the second ‘murder’ suspiciously linked to the original crime. And Sam Wyndham is deeply involved in both. The flashbacks to his life in London and the interweaving of the two stories, with evidence important to both crimes gradually revealed, was an interesting narrative choice and an effective means of illuminating Sam’s past while keeping it relevant to the current timeline. It all adds up to being a great read, written with an increasing confidence and the kind of flair that makes you excited for what comes next.
ARC via Netgalley
Rating: really liked it
This series gets better with every book and this one is fantastic. Incredibly atmospheric, both in the now of a remote colonial outpost in 1920s India and in the flashbacks to 1905 London. The human story of English war veteran turned policeman Sam Wyndham and his sergeant Surendranath Banerjee continues to develop, as Sam tries to kick his opium addiction and Surendranath starts to fight against his colonised mindset and develops pro-independence views. (The series engages directly and powerfully with colonialism through Sam's morally confused viewpoint, which veers between habitual racism and a growing awareness that, er, he's part of an occupying force that's stolen a country.) I particularly liked the way Surendranath pushes back against the way he's been nicknamed 'Surrender-not' because the English--including Sam--can't be bothered to learn to pronounce his name, and how Sam's internal narration then veers between the names, as bad habits collide with the realisation that he owes his friend and colleague more respect.
Add in a depiction of antisemitic prejudice in Britain and this is a very powerfully political book, which doesn't detract from the history or the mystery at all. It's intensely engaged because it should be.
Terrific stuff. If you like detective novels or historicals you should be reading this series.
Rating: really liked it
4.5 stars
For me, this is by far the most personal of Abir's books, delving into English class distinctions and the shifting of power near the end of the British Raj in India. Much of this is deeply painful, and yet Abir celebrates his own acceptance and success in modern Britain today.
As usual with my reviews, please first read the publisher’s blurb/summary of the book. Thank you. These two timeline views frame the action of the two stories: The first is a young copper Sam Wyndham in east London in 1905, and the second is Sam's retreat into an ashram in 1922 to recover from his growing opium addiction.
The marvellous Surendranath Bannerjee does not appear until the final quarter of the book, and his presence is very different from the previous books. Both Sam and Suren have matured significantly since they last worked together, and Suren's direction of the murder mystery near the ashram is superb.
The two timelines are brought together through a chance siting of a villain on his way to the ashram. And as with all of this series, a kind of justice is served. Wonderful stuff.
Full size image here
The young Sam as a new copper in the east end of London is frustratingly naive.
Sam possibly sees a villain
And while the thought that after all these years I should suddenly hallucinate about a long-dead murderer was perplexing, what really terrified me was the fear that I might be descending into madness.Sam remembers the murder mystery in the east end of London, when he was a very young man
My first View of Bessie had been of her head poking out of the second-storey window of her ramshackle tenement, bold as the bust on the prow of a ship, and aiming curses at the crowd in the street below. She had the dark hair and sharp features of a Boudicca and the tongue of a dock worker, and she couldn’t have been much older than twenty. But when you saw her close-up, it was the eyes you really noticed: deep and brown and quick. You couldn’t read them, but one glance from them and you knew, you just knew, this girl was smart, smarter than most men at any rate, and that given half a chance she’d show you just how much smarter. She was pretty too, but the eyes: the spark within them and the window they afforded into the mind beyond, they made her special.In 1922, Sam considers how he has arrived in India
St Francis was changing back into Brother Shankar, and suddenly I was struck by a deep clarity: a chain of events that had begun that day in 1918 when I was blown up by a German shell; which had continued with the death of my wife, and my decision to leave England for India and opium; all of it led to and culminated here, in this moment, with me lying collapsed and wretched in the dust of a monastery courtyard under the pitying gaze of the goddess Kali.Sam considers the melting pot (or not) of the east end of London in 1905
Why Whitechalpel? Because this is where they got off the boats, and because no one with any other choice wanted to live there. It had always been this way. Before the Jews had come the Irish, fleeing famine, and before them the Huguenots, running from religious wars. Always someone escaping something, and coming here with nothing because they had no choice, and because a life of nothing was better than no life at all.Strange events near the ashram in 1922
And suddenly I remembered my scripture: the story of Legion, the demons cast out by Jesus into a herd of swine. And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and were choked in the sea. Like every schoolboy in England, I’d been taught the story, but I’d never believed in its literal truth. Not until now.Sam has a revelation, and his respect, understanding and appreciation of Suren deepens
Not for the first time, I was forced to contemplate the nature of my compatriots. We liked to think of ourselves as a noble race, the architects ofthe greatest empire the world had ever known, but our behaviour was still rooted in the narrow-minded mentality of that wet little island whence we came. The truth was we wasted an inordinate amount of time and energy on our petty hierarchies and hypocrisies.
Rating: really liked it
In every novel of this extraordinary series, Abir Mukherjee brings in new aspects of India under the rule of the British Raj. Always subtly portraying the British acts of deplorability in the backdrop of these terrific murder mysteries rich in culture and history. This is a must-read for fans of this genre.
Rating: really liked it
Particularly appreciated the ending. No more Surrender ... visiting some youtube sites Assam useful
Rating: really liked it
Seriously good. We learn more about Sam’s past, Suren finally takes issue with being called Surrender-not because the Brits are too lazy to say his name correctly, and we see a much more serious side to Banerjee that showed Sam he has seriously underestimated his junior colleague. We also have Sam’s treatment at the Ashram for his addiction. I wonder if the cure will hold in future books? Time will tell!
Rating: really liked it
Death in the East is the fourth novel in the Calcutta-based detective, Captain Sam Wyndham, series and is one of the most compulsively readable and interesting historical fiction series' out there at the moment. It isn't necessary to have read the previous instalments but you will probably want to if you enjoy this one. Set in 1922, Sam Wyndham has had the shock of his life and is shaken to the core. On a train journey to Shyam, he alights at Assam despite his important reason for travelling. Wyndham has an opiate addiction and is in desperate need of help. However, the face he sees in Assam is one he never thought he would see again (it's not the drugs) because the guy was reported dead. So was exactly is going on and will Sam get up again having been knocked for six? The potent combination of history, mystery and social commentary really make this a must-read if you appreciate substance as well as style in a thriller.
There arent many crime thrillers set in India so I adored reading about the places that are described so vividly in the text that you feel as if you're actually there with the characters. I particularly enjoyed the social commentary and critique of the time and it made the whole book full of depth and complexity. As a UK colony at the time we bear witness to some awful racist remarks amongst the pages but I would say it's, sadly, accurate of the time and of sentiments. It is structured as a dual narrative with events taking place in present-day but with flashbacks to 1905 in which Bessie Drummond was brutally killed. It is a real page-turner with twists around each corner and a cleverly woven plot with so many different layers to it. This is a slow-burn novel for the majority of the time but towards the end, the action is kicked up a couple of gears and the conclusion both shocks and amazes. Many thanks to Harvill Secker for an ARC.
Rating: really liked it
This was a title I wanted for quite a while, pretty much since finishing Smoke and Ashes, and Abir Mukherjee delivers once more, offering us another brilliant historical crime novel.
After three books, it is only fair to say that I am fully invested in Sam Wyndham. We find him finally dealing with his opium addiction, going to a ashram in Assam, on the advice of his doctor, to seek treatment. He knows he will go through hell, but what he doesn’t expect is to see a ghost from his past.
The narration switches between the India of 1922 and the London East End of 1905 when Sam was a young police constable. As he did for Calcutta, Mukherjee brings Whitechapel into relief, in all its poverty, a veritable melting pot of cultures, but also with rampant crime and anti-immigrant hysteria. Sounds sadly familiar... Sad, yes, but not devoid of hope.
I personally loved this, both for the excellent plot and writing style, but even more the development of the characters. Sam, of course, but also Banerjee, who grows in confidence, and their resulting friendship.
I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Random House UK, Vintage Publishing, and to Abir Mukherjee for the opportunity.
Rating: really liked it
4.5 stars - I love this series, it just keeps getting better. This one had not one but two locked room mysteries for Sam Wyndham - one as a young constable In London in 1905, another in 1922 Assam.
Sam has finally been forced to deal with his opium addiction, a lasting and painful reminder of his WWI service. The 1922 portion of the book opens with him traveling to an ashram in Assam that treats opium addicts; as he’s leaving the train, he spots a suspect from the past he thought long dead.
Spotting the ghost from his past leads to the 1905 portion of the book, which starts with the young Constable Wyndham on patrol, breaking up a fight where a woman has been hurt. Turns out she’s an old flame of his, but she won’t give the police any information about why the men were fighting, or why she’s involved. Soon, she’s found brutally murdered in her own bed - Sam feels he let her down, but there are layers of deceit here - no spoilers, but him being a young, naive cop, I just knew this wasn’t going to end well. The switch back and forth in time is not a favorite device, although Mukherjee handles it extremely well - the reader is left on tenterhooks from chapter to chapter, as we jump back and forth!
In Assam, Sam goes through the grueling treatment, then as he is just about ready to leave, a fellow ashram resident is found dead. Sam can’t help feeling it wasn’t an accident, that the ghost from his past may have been after him - and the unfortunate fellow patient bore a resemblance, and happened to wander away from the ashram at the wrong time. Sam summons Sgt. Bannerjee, his Bengali partner, to help investigate - soon, another death needs their attention, and the two fellow officers, roommates and friends face a reckoning.
This was wonderful, especially once Bannerjee arrived and things started coming together — the author gives a heartfelt afterword about how he started out just wanting to write a locked room mystery, but amid the rising nationalism around the world (this was in 2019), he wanted to address anti-immigrant sentiment. Or in the case of India and the Raj, the treatment of natives like Sgt. Banerjee by the British in his own country. I thought this was very well handled, and overdue - a friend who reviewed the previous book (Smoke and Ashes) pointed out that the two men had been roommates for a year, and the relationship seemed strangely static for that amount of intimacy. A valid point, upon reflection, and I think this book definitely moves their friendship forward in important ways. I can’t wait for the next book!
Rating: really liked it
Murder Mystery set in ASSAM and EAST LONDON
This is the fourth in the Sam Wyndham series and can be read as a stand alone.
1922. It is now time that Sam Wyndham goes to an ashram to shake his addiction to opium. it is certainly a gruelling and deeply unpleasant process but really he has no choice. His continued habit would soon affect his sleuthing. Narcotic abuse is a capricious master and he has to commit to a regime of vomiting, sweats and potions until he emerges from this hellish period, as a hopefully cleansed and reformed man.
This is a dual timeline novel and much of the early part of the novel is also set in 1905 in the East of London. The death of a woman – with whom Wyndham had been romantically involved – proves to be a more complex affair than at first mooted. Suspicion settles on a Jewish man but of course things are not as they seem.
The two stories run alongside each other and murder in India tests Wyndham’s investigative skills.
As always with Abir Mukherjee’s novels, there is delightful detail that really transports the reader back in time and place. Many people will be aghast at the casual racism of the era but that was, I am sure, how it was. The feel of London with its fog and street creeping people, and India, with its heat and colour, come to vibrant life in the hands of the author.
Part of the book is set in Jatinga, Assam and the novel opens as birds fly to their deaths. Over the last 100 years, thousands of birds have flown to their death over a small strip of land in Jatinga, India. In a town of only 2,500 people, this bizarre Bermuda Triangle of fowl death remains largely unexplained, despite studies by India’s most prestigious ornithologists. Read more about this very odd phenomenon on this link. Learning about curious events like this are all part of the wonders of literary wanderlust. Enjoy.
Rating: really liked it
This just gets better and better. Waiting for the next book.
Rating: really liked it
A friend recommended this author and I am so glad he did. Suicidal birds, opium addicts, evil villains and London in 1905 and Assam in 1923. The story follows Inspector Wyndham going to a retreat to overcome his opium addiction. There he comes across his nemesis from when he was a young constable. The story switches between the two time periods and the investigation into the murder of a friend of Wyndham.
The story is a locked room mystery with an ingenious solution. The story follows the inherent racism of the Raj and the inequality of justice both in England and India.
A very enjoyable and easy read. I look forward to catching up with the rest of the series.
