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kentcryptid 's review for:
A Rising Man
by Abir Mukherjee
A Rising Man's setting in 1919 Calcutta is fascinating, and Mukherjee's portrayal of the evils of British colonial rule transcends the book's occasionally predictable detective tropes. The story is told with an engaging dry humour and I ate it up.
I found myself wishing that Sergeant Banerjee - effectively Wyndham's sidekick - had got his own POV chapters. Wyndham is an engaging enough narrator, but Banerjee's perspective on him, as a fresh off the boat English guy blundering around and not understanding how anything works, would have been very entertaining. I hope Banerjee will get more time devoted to him in subsequent books.
There's also an irritating use of the dead wife trope. We're informed early on that Wyndham's wife died in the Spanish flu and he spends a lot of time dreaming about her, when he isn't trying to date the murder victim's secretary. Mystery writers: try writing more women who are alive, you may find you take to it.
I found myself wishing that Sergeant Banerjee - effectively Wyndham's sidekick - had got his own POV chapters. Wyndham is an engaging enough narrator, but Banerjee's perspective on him, as a fresh off the boat English guy blundering around and not understanding how anything works, would have been very entertaining. I hope Banerjee will get more time devoted to him in subsequent books.
There's also an irritating use of the dead wife trope. We're informed early on that Wyndham's wife died in the Spanish flu and he spends a lot of time dreaming about her, when he isn't trying to date the murder victim's secretary. Mystery writers: try writing more women who are alive, you may find you take to it.