A Rising Man

This is a crime novel set in 1919 Calcutta. We follow Captain Sam Wyndham, who is a former Scotland Yard detective seeking a fresh start after the emotional wounds following WWI and the death of his wife.

When a senior official is murdered, he doesn't hold back during his search from British mansions to seedy opium dens with his new sidekick, Sergeant Banerjee. Rising tensions, the clash of societies, the heat, dirt, and crowding all contribute to bringing this colorful period to life.

This is the debut novel and the first in a remarkably well-told series so interesting I found… show more.

Set in India in 1919, A Rising Man plunges us into all the colours and chaos of India just as the British Empire is beginning to crumble. We see events through the eyes of English policeman Captain Sam Wyndham who has joined the Calcutta police. This is a riveting read and a fascinating exploration of the end of an empire.

In this first of Abir Mukherjee’s Wyndham and Banerjee series we meet his super protagonists, officers in the Imperial Police Force, and their setting – 1920s Calcutta during the days of the high Raj. Wyndham, a damaged British First World War veteran and Banerjee, his Bengali sergeant, navigate a complex world of politics and crime in this incredibly impressive debut – one which has established Mukherjee as a rising man of historical crime fiction himself.