A review by claudia_is_reading
A Necessary Evil by Abir Mukherjee

5.0

Well, the first one certainly wasn't a fluke. This one is simply superb!

Seriously, this series is captivating. The historical and social settings are perfect, and the mystery fascinating.

Sam is getting more and more entangled with O, and no matter what he says, is a problem. Surrender-not keeps proving his worth as an investigator and becoming more a partner than a simple aide; meanwhile, Annie is being pursued by a prince. Yeah, Sam is not happy :P

In that regard, I think this quote is perfect to define Sam's attitude towards India and Hindus:

I forced myself to focus. Plenty of white men had native mistresses; hell, the woman I’d been keen on for the last twelve months was hardly lily-white, so why should it be different when an Indian man fell in love with a white woman? But it was different. It was something that every Englishman knew – or rather felt – because it was never taught to you explicitly. You just absorbed it, along with the rest of the rubbish about the superiority of the white man. And while I could discount most of that nonsense, it seemed that love between an Indian and an Englishwoman was something I couldn’t quite accept.
And then it struck me. I realised that what I found truly distasteful was not that an Indian should be attracted to a white woman – that, though undesirable, was at least understandable – but the idea that she might return his love. It wasn’t, I found, something I wished to dwell on, though whether that was from an aversion towards Miss Pemberley’s feelings or my own, I couldn’t say.

Quite revealing, isn't it?

But the real protagonist here it's India and the tumultuous time just before its independence. I love how carefully we are shown the cultural subtleties of its people.

‘Hierarchies are odd things are they not, Captain?’ He smiled.
‘In what way, Your Highness?’
‘Take the three of us,’ he said, ‘a prince, a police inspector and a sergeant. On the face of it, our relative positions in the pecking order seem clear. But things are rarely that simple.’
He pointed towards the gates of the Bengal Club, which we were passing on our left. ‘I may be a prince, but the colour of my skin precludes me from entering that august institution, and the same goes for Bunty here. You, though, an Englishman, would have no such problem. In Calcutta all doors are open to you. Suddenly our hierarchy has changed somewhat, no?’
‘I take your point,’ I said.
‘But that’s not the end of it,’ he continued. ‘Our friend Bunty is a Brahmin. As a member of the priestly caste, he outranks even a prince, let alone, I fear, a casteless English policeman.’ The prince smiled. ‘Once more our hierarchy changes, and who is to say which of the three is most legitimate?’
‘A prince, a priest and a policeman drive past the Bengal Club in a Rolls-Royce …’ I said. ‘It sounds like the opening to a not very amusing joke.’
‘On the contrary,’ said the prince. ‘If you think about it, it is actually most amusing.’

India with its monsoons, its vibrant and wonderful people, its cruelty and its mysticism... it's such a wonderful portrayal of an era...

I love how the mystery's solution depends on a real understanding of Indian culture and religion; how deeply rooted in tradition is the motive that leads to the murder.

A beautifully written historical novel with a great mystery and characters that ring true, what else could you wish from a book?

Oh! And Simon Bubb did a fantastic job with the narration =D