maybe im being a bit harsh giving it 3.75 as the whole idea of the story is really great and interesting but i dont think the writing style of this book grabbed me and it literally took me a month to read which is another testament that I didn’t find myself wanting to read the book until it was getting to the end. But an amazing debut novel. I wasn’t expecting this to be a crime novel from the blurb, I was expecting it to be more political, which it did get in the second half/third of the book. But I think that’s what struck me at first because I wasn’t in the mood for a crime novel and it was being set up as a who done in just set in 1900’s India. But then it got more political with terrorists and political speakers and race etc which I enjoyed and found much more interesting. My fave characters were Banjeree and Sam towards the end. I had a feeling I knew that Digby was going to be involved in the killing from like the 3rd page but then went off the idea but I always thought he was corrupt so even though it was a twist I still had it in the back of my mind for some reason. Would have been a mad twist if it was Banjeree for political reasons. And would have been heart breaking but probably realistic for the time if Banjeree was blamed for Digby’s killing but I’m glad they blamed Vikram although this wasn’t that clear. As for Bryne & Annie’s involvement, I started to suspect this a few chapters before the end but the seeds were planted and it was wrapped up in the end. I did actually think this was slow/medium pace just because of how long the book was for the time span of like 5 days even though this is realistic of an investigation. I sometimes like when the killer is revealed in at least the last quarter of the book as there is more of an explanation after etc but this didn’t happen here, it was all wrapped up rather quickly despite how long the author took to describe other things. I did like the writing style at points and the dialogue was always spot on and I really enjoyed this. Apart from sometimes some of the political speeches felt a bit too scripted and essay like rather than conversational of clearly trying to get a point across from the author. But I found the description of locations often unclear and a bit dull and boring but I think that’s on me as the writing was beautiful I just like something a little more grabbing. I did find myself wanting to pick it up more in the last quarter which isn’t unusual in crime books but I feel like more should have been revealed and gotten quicker in the first half as it was very very slow and nothing really being revealed at all. It was like let’s go speak to this person ahhh nothing let’s go speak to this person. I get it all worked out for the plot in the end and there was a good set up of characters but felt a while to get going. I did like Annie and get why she told Bunchan about Sam’s revelations due to wanting to keep herself safe but I wouldnt take her back if I was Sam. I would like to know what happens to the characters next but don’t know if I can be arsed to read the series. Its cute that the author was an accountant before though. Gonna go read up on the history of India now byeeee !!