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3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
This is a fine detective novel set in British India, during the peak of Indian struggle for independence. More than the mystery, I liked learning some aspects of Indian history.
Extract from the book that perfectly sums up the British oppression of Indian natives-
‘Moral superiority.’ He let the phrase sink in. ‘For such a small number to rule over so many, the rulers need to project an aura of superiority over the ruled. Not just physical or military superiority mind, but also moral superiority. More importantly, their subjects must in turn believe themselves to be inferior; that they need to be ruled for their own benefit.
‘It seems everything we’ve done since the Battle of Plassey has been with a view to keepin’ the natives in their place, convincing them they need our guidance, and our education. Their culture must be shown to be barbaric, their religions built on false gods, even their architecture must be inferior to ours. Why else would we build that bloody great monstrosity the Victoria Memorial out of white marble and make it bigger than the Taj Mahal?
‘Christ we don’t even let facts get in the way if it might harm the image we want to maintain. Take a look at any Indian primary school atlas. They put Britain and India next to one another, each takin’ up a full page. We don’t
even show them to scale, lest little brown children realize how tiny Britain is compared to India!
Extract from the book that perfectly sums up the British oppression of Indian natives-
‘Moral superiority.’ He let the phrase sink in. ‘For such a small number to rule over so many, the rulers need to project an aura of superiority over the ruled. Not just physical or military superiority mind, but also moral superiority. More importantly, their subjects must in turn believe themselves to be inferior; that they need to be ruled for their own benefit.
‘It seems everything we’ve done since the Battle of Plassey has been with a view to keepin’ the natives in their place, convincing them they need our guidance, and our education. Their culture must be shown to be barbaric, their religions built on false gods, even their architecture must be inferior to ours. Why else would we build that bloody great monstrosity the Victoria Memorial out of white marble and make it bigger than the Taj Mahal?
‘Christ we don’t even let facts get in the way if it might harm the image we want to maintain. Take a look at any Indian primary school atlas. They put Britain and India next to one another, each takin’ up a full page. We don’t
even show them to scale, lest little brown children realize how tiny Britain is compared to India!
Calcutta in 1919 is a city on the boil both with the weather and the political situation. As the British colonial governors battle to contain the growing fight for independence it also is reeling from the consequences of the end of the war in which many Indians fought for the mother country. Into this maelstrom steps Sam wyndham a war veteran, who having joined the London police is recruited to the Calcutta force. He has his own demons to contend with and his first investigation is that of the murder of a Sahib, a fixer for the colonial government and a business leader.
He is aided by a local Indian police officer and a hardened colleague.
I really liked this book which captured well the feel of Calcutta and also the political turmoil, the sense of the end of the raj was well done with the British clinging to power by all means.
Definitely a great debut and I can't wait to read the rest of the series.
He is aided by a local Indian police officer and a hardened colleague.
I really liked this book which captured well the feel of Calcutta and also the political turmoil, the sense of the end of the raj was well done with the British clinging to power by all means.
Definitely a great debut and I can't wait to read the rest of the series.
dark
mysterious
Loved this...colonial India, hints of end of empire, crime and great personalities. Seems a good combo to me.
At first I struggled with the ruling class and natives trope. Nonetheless, this is how the British ruled, with the assumption of superiority laced with bigotry, however abhorrent it feels. Captain Sam Wyndham, is parachuted (not literally) into Calcutta to head up a new post in the police force, it is 1919. He is quickly thrown into investigating the murder of a senior official in the administration and has to both make sense of the killing and find the assassin whilst unravelling the idiosyncrasies of the morally corrupt bureaucracy.
I found it both pacey and atmospheric and am left wanting more. Good job this is the first in the series.
At first I struggled with the ruling class and natives trope. Nonetheless, this is how the British ruled, with the assumption of superiority laced with bigotry, however abhorrent it feels. Captain Sam Wyndham, is parachuted (not literally) into Calcutta to head up a new post in the police force, it is 1919. He is quickly thrown into investigating the murder of a senior official in the administration and has to both make sense of the killing and find the assassin whilst unravelling the idiosyncrasies of the morally corrupt bureaucracy.
I found it both pacey and atmospheric and am left wanting more. Good job this is the first in the series.
If you are willing to pervert the course of justice…
Imagine you were an author trying to both tell a decent crime story (the murder of Alexander MacAuley, the guy to ‘fix‘ issues for both the Lieutenant Govenor of Bengal as much as for the rich industrial Buchan) as well as convey the spirit of 1919 Calcutta, with its colonial British system of suppressing local rights while feeling ever so superior, all in the presence of recent activities of a certain Mr Ghandi and others.
You might decide to write the story from the point of view of the Indians – probably without the average British white reader identifying and without the average Indian reader (British passport or not) reading anything he had not known before.
No, British author Abir Mukherjee (whose parents had immigrated from India) knows better. His first person narrator is Captain Sam Wyndham, who, desillusioned from the trenches in France, embarks from Britain to a new carreer in Calcutta to find a high-profile murder to start with. A British official is found stabbed in ‘Black Town‘, behind a brothel with a note in his mouth hinting at political uproar from the local population, the ‘natives‘, this is in itself an highly promising perspective to start a novel.
The author adds some flavour with a British sub-ordinate who rather wanted Wyndham‘s job and a local officer who will not even be admitted to some places in his own country. 'NO DOGS OR INDIANS BEYOND THIS POINT.' p 87
The tone of the story reminds me of that of Bogart’s voice from the off in "The Maltese Falcon“ – matter of fact, deadpan, laconical „I had some sympathy with him, and not just because of the temperature, which was around a hundred and ten [> 40° C] in the shade. Or at least, it would have been, had there been any.“ p 76 You really start to love buddy cops Wyndham and Banerjee, with Wyndham being the one whose tongue is mostly more loose than is the Indian‘s: p 38 Banerjee: „One might say that the Lieutenant Governor has certain, broad discretionary powers that he is free to exercise in furtherance of the good governance of His Majesty’s colonial territorities of the Bengal Presidency.“
Wyndham "You mean he can do whatever the hell he likes?“ Yes, as a reader, you really understand the situation.
No small praise for this must-read crime story: you will get historical insight, British AND Indian, have a decent enough mystery with a fair share of pondering about conspiracy and its local deal of uproar as well as spy game, all of it delivered with this fine thread of humerous voice bordering irony. I loved it but think some might think the progress a bit slow paced (try an excerpt). You might wish to look up a very few matters mentioned in the text which a British or Indian reader might be more familiar with (such as the Rowlatt Act, a smaller Portion of Ghandi's activities, and the Black Hole of Calcutta - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rowlatt_Act;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi#Champaran_and_Kheda;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Hole_of_Calcutta). But you do not have to have even seen the movie 2Ghandi“ to be able to understand leave alone enjoy the book.
I will go and get my next book from the author, what else can one do? Please, join me.
German title: Ein angesehener Mann.
Imagine you were an author trying to both tell a decent crime story (the murder of Alexander MacAuley, the guy to ‘fix‘ issues for both the Lieutenant Govenor of Bengal as much as for the rich industrial Buchan) as well as convey the spirit of 1919 Calcutta, with its colonial British system of suppressing local rights while feeling ever so superior, all in the presence of recent activities of a certain Mr Ghandi and others.
You might decide to write the story from the point of view of the Indians – probably without the average British white reader identifying and without the average Indian reader (British passport or not) reading anything he had not known before.
No, British author Abir Mukherjee (whose parents had immigrated from India) knows better. His first person narrator is Captain Sam Wyndham, who, desillusioned from the trenches in France, embarks from Britain to a new carreer in Calcutta to find a high-profile murder to start with. A British official is found stabbed in ‘Black Town‘, behind a brothel with a note in his mouth hinting at political uproar from the local population, the ‘natives‘, this is in itself an highly promising perspective to start a novel.
The author adds some flavour with a British sub-ordinate who rather wanted Wyndham‘s job and a local officer who will not even be admitted to some places in his own country. 'NO DOGS OR INDIANS BEYOND THIS POINT.' p 87
The tone of the story reminds me of that of Bogart’s voice from the off in "The Maltese Falcon“ – matter of fact, deadpan, laconical „I had some sympathy with him, and not just because of the temperature, which was around a hundred and ten [> 40° C] in the shade. Or at least, it would have been, had there been any.“ p 76 You really start to love buddy cops Wyndham and Banerjee, with Wyndham being the one whose tongue is mostly more loose than is the Indian‘s: p 38 Banerjee: „One might say that the Lieutenant Governor has certain, broad discretionary powers that he is free to exercise in furtherance of the good governance of His Majesty’s colonial territorities of the Bengal Presidency.“
Wyndham "You mean he can do whatever the hell he likes?“ Yes, as a reader, you really understand the situation.
No small praise for this must-read crime story: you will get historical insight, British AND Indian, have a decent enough mystery with a fair share of pondering about conspiracy and its local deal of uproar as well as spy game, all of it delivered with this fine thread of humerous voice bordering irony. I loved it but think some might think the progress a bit slow paced (try an excerpt). You might wish to look up a very few matters mentioned in the text which a British or Indian reader might be more familiar with (such as the Rowlatt Act, a smaller Portion of Ghandi's activities, and the Black Hole of Calcutta - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rowlatt_Act;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi#Champaran_and_Kheda;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Hole_of_Calcutta). But you do not have to have even seen the movie 2Ghandi“ to be able to understand leave alone enjoy the book.
I will go and get my next book from the author, what else can one do? Please, join me.
German title: Ein angesehener Mann.
Легкое и увлекательное чтение. Детективная составляющая хорошо продумана, хотя догадаться о том, кто преступник, было не сложно. Но эту книгу стоит читать не столько как детектив, сколько как исторический экскурс в Индию 20-х гг прошлого века. Вот она описана отлично - с интересными подробностями, с уважением к истории и, что очень важно, с юмором!
I enjoyed A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee. Set in India in 1919, it tells the tale of Captain Sam Wyndham, a new arrival to Calcutta's police force. It's a good detective story but set apart by the setting in the colourful, aromatic and exciting surroundings of Calcutta. This is the beginning of a series and I look forward to finding out what Wyndham and his sidekick, the wonderful Surrender-not Bannerjee get up to next.
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"India, 1919. Desperate for a fresh start, Captain Sam Wyndham arrives to take up an important post in Calcutta's police force.
He is soon called to the scene of a horrifying murder. The victim was a senior official, and a note left in his mouth warns the British to leave India – or else.
With the stability of the Empire under threat, Wyndham and Sergeant 'Surrender-not' Banerjee must solve the case quickly. But there are some who will do anything to stop them..."
*************************
"India, 1919. Desperate for a fresh start, Captain Sam Wyndham arrives to take up an important post in Calcutta's police force.
He is soon called to the scene of a horrifying murder. The victim was a senior official, and a note left in his mouth warns the British to leave India – or else.
With the stability of the Empire under threat, Wyndham and Sergeant 'Surrender-not' Banerjee must solve the case quickly. But there are some who will do anything to stop them..."
DNF. Read halfway through and was bored the whole time.
I'm a suckere for anything set in early 20th century India, as the setting is exotic and fraught with opportunities for conflict, introspection, elegance, rot, and brilliant color.
This was an interesting, the mystery was fairly mediocre, but the characters and setting were diverse enough I didn't really care much.
Sam is a mess ... hoping his character becomes more developed over the series, as Mukherjee was a bit all over the place with him.
This was an interesting, the mystery was fairly mediocre, but the characters and setting were diverse enough I didn't really care much.
Sam is a mess ... hoping his character becomes more developed over the series, as Mukherjee was a bit all over the place with him.
4++. I’m a sucker for a fully-fleshed out detective novel. I’m a sucker for flawed protagonists. I’m a sucker for a period novel. I’m a sucker for good twists I didn’t quite have grasped when they land. Very much looking forward to reading more of this series.