Book: A Necessary Evil
Author: Abir Mukherjee
Pages: 380
Read on: Kindle
Read in: 4 hours
Publisher: Vintage
Plot Summary: India, 1920. Captain Wyndham and Sergeant Banerjee of the Calcutta Police Force investigate the dramatic assassination of a Maharajah's son.
The fabulously wealthy kingdom of Sambalpore is home to tigers, elephants, diamond mines and the beautiful Palace of the Sun. But when the heir to the throne is assassinated in the presence of Captain Sam Wyndham and Sergeant 'Surrender-Not' Banerjee, they discover a kingdom riven with suppressed conflict.
Prince Adhir was a moderniser whose attitudes - and romantic relationship - may have upset the more religious elements of his country, while his brother – now in line to the throne – appears to be a feckless playboy.
As Wyndham and Banerjee desperately try to unravel the mystery behind the assassination, they become entangled in a dangerous world where those in power live by their own rules and those who cross their paths pay with their lives. They must find a murderer, before the murderer finds them.
Things I Liked:
- I love this recent trend (of sorts) of setting detectives (Indian or otherwise) against the backdrop of the Raj! I read another similarly set book in March called A Very Pukka Murder and reviewed it here. I find the socio-political and cultural backdrop of the Raj and the race-related challenges that it presents to the detectives and the overall investigation process.
- The premise of this book itself is quite interesting. You have a Brit police officer and his Harrow-Cambridge educated Indian sidekick. Then you have the assassination of a prince, palace intrigue, vested interests of multiple parties in his life... so much potential for drama and a rich narrative! Happy to report that the book did not let me down.
- The author has done a great job of world-building/ context setting in this book. The tricky dynamics between India Office and the Princely States, the dynamics within the royal family of Sambalpore and the typical British bureaucratic back-and-forth between the Police and the bureaucrats are all very, very well depicted.
- The crime and the subsequent investigative process are also nicely done. There are multiple red herrings, more than a few motivations behind getting rid of Prince Adhir and several suspects within Sambalpore and out of it. I liked that the author kept me guessing for a pretty long time.
- There are some interesting observations in this book about race relations between the Brits and Indians. We also have an Anglo-Indian female lead (of sorts) in the book and she is shown as an entrepreneur, who feels like she belongs neither to her Brit side nor to her Indian one, but fits in well in both worlds.
- The lead characters are interesting. Sam Wyndham is a bit stereotypical to most British male characters in the post-World War 1 era.. he is clearly traumatised by his experiences in the trenches, troubled by the loss of friends and family during the Great War.. he is a bit lost.. he is struggling.. So, in that sense, there is nothing very unique about him, but I am willing to look past that because it is only fair that someone who lived through the horror that was WW1 would end up like that. Surendranath Banerjee (jokingly referred to as Surrender-Not Banerjee) is also your typical Anglophilic Upper Class Bengali Bhadralok. He is Harrow and Cambridge educated and is a cop, which his family is not too thrilled about. Surendranath is occasionally wry but often nervous but is quite sharp. I wish he was more of an equal in this story but well...
Things I Didn't Like:
- The killer was sort of apparent at the 40% mark of the book, but that was not because of any shortcoming on the author's part. If you pay attention, you'll guess the killer too.. but, honestly, there are loads of interesting things that happen in the book, so it is totally worth reading it!
Rating: 4/5
If you enjoy a crime thriller plus historical fiction, then this is a good book for you!
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