Book Review: The Shadows of Men by Abir Mukherjee

 

Book: The Shadows of Men 

Author: Abir Mukherjee 

Pages: 341

Read on: Kindle 

Read in: ~3 hours 

Plot Summary: Calcutta, 1923. When a Hindu theologian is found murdered in his home, the city is on the brink of all-out religious war. Can officers of the Imperial Police Force, Captain Sam Wyndham and Sergeant Surendranath Banerjee track down those responsible in time to stop a bloodbath? 

Set at a time of heightened political tension, beginning in atmospheric Calcutta and taking the detectives all the way to bustling Bombay, the latest instalment in this 'unmissable' (The Times) series presents Wyndham and Banerjee with an unprecedented challenge. Will this be the case that finally drives them apart?

General Thoughts: This is the fifth book in Abir Mukherjee's Sam Wyndham and Surendranath Banerjee series. This is a series of historical crime fiction books set in India in the 1920s wherein Wyndham- a detective with the Imperial Police in Calcutta- and Banerjee- his sergeant- solve crimes against the backdrop of rising anti-British sentiment. I've read and mostly enjoyed the previous books in the series. Reviews can be found here, here and here. 

Things I Liked: 

1. The premise of the book was interesting- communal tensions, the murder of a prominent right-wing Hindutva leader and somehow poor Banerjee is caught up in the midst of all of this! The books in this series have been leading upto a flashpoint of sorts. Banerjee has been torn over his allegiance to the British Imperial Police and his duty towards India, heavily influenced by his father and his family friend- Subhash Chandra Bose. So, it was not much of a surprise that this book took his journey forward. 

2. There is a fair amount of political intrigue in this book. Obviously, between the right-wing Hindu and right-wing Muslim political parties, who have been jousting for a while. Then there is the internal police department politics- senior officers who want to believe Banerjee is innocent but can't openly support him because he is a "native" with family ties to the independence movement. Finally, there is some spy-spy politics. Can't elaborate more on that because that would give the whole plot away! All of this is nicely done. 

3. The investigative process/ journey in this book is quite fun and thrilling. Wyndham and Banerjee end up in Bombay chasing a lead and their adventures there are quite interesting. They also meet some nice people and in the process we have a new intrepid female character in Ooravis Colah- a wealthy Parsi woman, who helps the duo. 

Things I Didn't Like: 

1. The murder mystery in this book was really dull. A rigid, right-wing Hindutva politician is killed. Big whoop! To start with, I didn't care much about this murder at all. Then, to make matters much worse, there weren't too many suspects to start with! It was just a matter of eliminating one of two suspects and that made this such a dull book! 

2. There was more running away from the Section H spies in this book than any active crime solving. The action does get a bit better when our sleuthing duo reaches Bombay, but not by much. I preferred the crime-solving style of the previous four books in the series. 

3. I found some socio-cultural depictions very fantastical in this book. The way single women lived in 1923 in India (even if they were very wealthy) was not very accurate. This is a tragic departure from the previous books in the series where the socio-cultural details were significantly better researched. 

Rating: 3/5