Reviews - A Rising Man | The StoryGraph

394 reviews for:

A Rising Man

Abir Mukherjee

3.77 AVERAGE

izzy_reads7's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

To be honest, when I read a mystery, I don't expect tremendous character work, as those stories are usually more plot-heavy. However, that was not the case here; these characters are all well-developed. They have their motives, and you can physically picture them in your head. Our main character, Sam, has a mysterious, shadowed past that adds so much depth to his character and explains his actions and thought processes. His character is perfect for a historical mystery of this time. He is a veteran of the First World War who is now a detective sent to India.

The atmosphere was my favorite part and the highlight of the novel, which I didn't really expect going in. This story is set in India, and I can only think of one other book I’ve read that takes place in that setting. With an Indian backdrop, how can you not make it vivid? This book truly invokes your senses—taste, smell, imagery, sounds—it's incredibly vivid, with great world-building. The story captures the unrest of British India, and the writing is very descriptive. You get every little detail of the characters' day-to-day lives. There aren't big time jumps while reading this book, and at times that could feel a little tedious. The plot isn't something that I would typically be drawn to, but I was really captivated by the setting, taking place in the late 1910s.

Even though this is a mystery novel, I think it touches on a lot of other themes. I keep mentioning the historical setting—this is British India. We have themes of class, race, and color, and how they all built a society in India that was ruled by Britain, a country filled with unrest trying to break free from the grasp of the British Empire. It was fascinating to read about and see a bit of history that we don’t talk about much in the West.

I really had no idea where the mystery was going to go; I was making theories in my head that none of them proved to be true. I didn’t realize what was actually the case until the characters figured it out themselves, which was really awesome. You feel immersed in the characters' shoes as they try to unravel the mystery. This book makes a lot of sense; there's a lot of logic here, and you can definitely tell it was well-researched concerning the historical setting and how this kind of case would have been handled in British India.

I liked this book and would recommend that you pick it up. For a little fun to wrap up the review, I would recommend this book to you if Rick was your favorite character on "The White Lotus." He’s like our character Sam—a man on a mission but with a bit of a shadowy past. I can also see bits of the Netflix series "Narcos" in the tone of the book overall, with how the story is told and the missions involved. Some parts of this really reminded me of the missions we see in "Narcos." Lastly, again bringing up the historical setting with World War I, if you liked "1917," I think you might enjoy this book—a man on a mission with a past he doesn’t really want to talk about, all set in the late 1910s.

3.75 out of 5 stars.

charlm24's review against another edition

2.25

mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Quick little enjoyable read!

gr8esc's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous dark funny informative mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Entertaining read, loved the lead characters, and enjoyed learning about Calcutta / British rule.

jtobin's review against another edition

4.0

This book does exactly what a noir should, which is show in an interesting and exciting way how difficult getting justice out of an unjust system can be. For this reason, the British Raj is an exceptionally well chosen setting and Mukherjee does a great job steadily building up just how broken and unjust that government was.

The main character/narrator was very frustrating for me, however. I generally avoid "privileged dude learns racism is bad" stories, and although the author does a great job with this one, it still irked me. Sam Wyndham's fresh arrival to India and war trauma-based disillusionment with the British empire was a great base for a character with a white officer's access but a slightly different point of view. However lots of little details added up that were eternally frustrating, such as the (first person) narration by Sam calling his subordinate/friend Sundernath Banerjee "Surrender-not" for the entire novel. What is more, despite his lack of political enthusiasm, Sam was a literal Fenian hunter at Special Branch in his last job. Even with his increased disillusionment and bitterness at the end of the novel,

Spoiler

clearly didn't feel bad enough about it not turn in his undecover IRA flatmate to British security forces he both hates personally and knows engage in torture of prisoners

!! His opioid addiction is one of the few traits that distinguishes him from a regular hard-boiled detective, which may provide interesting drama in later stories. He also has a tendency to make bizzare decisions primarily for plot reasons, which can be rather annoying.

Despite these frustrations, I will likely read more books in this series. Besides the main character, the author does a very good job in exploring power and society in 1919 Calcutta while also making a exciting story. I hope that our main character goes through some serious change later in the book, and that there will be more notable women characters, but overall pretty enjoyable book.

I am giving it an extra star because the setting. More books not set in the UK please!!