A review by ben_miller
Death in the East by Abir Mukherjee
4.0
This entry in the Wyndham/Banerjee series has the new narrative wrinkle of dueling timelines: a young Wyndham investigating a murder in London's East End, and the present-day Wyndham detoxing from opium in a remote ashram in mountainous Assam.
Strangely (or perhaps not) I found the ashram storyline gripping and the historical murder storyline boring. Having gotten to know Sam Wyndham over three books, his battle with addiction and the rigorous ashram lifestyle was more compelling to me than a sepia-toned murder mystery that I know I'm only reading about because it's eventually going to catch up with him. Unfortunately, Mukherjee devotes more time and energy to the less interesting of the two narratives.
Halfway through, the plotlines merge and the Sergeant Surendranath Banerjee finally arrives on scene from his ancestral home in Dhaka, no longer content to be called "Surrender-not." Like Sam, he is a changed man, but for different reasons. The highlight of this book is a series of chapters, covering about 40 pages, in which the newly self-confident Surendranath icily interviews the suspects while clad in a homespun dhoti. These hill-station Britishers are affronted at being relentlessly questioned by a man who appears to them to be a servant, and for the reader it's not only a thrilling bit of mystery writing but a cathartic moment of liberation for a well-liked character.
Like the other books in this series, it has some sustained periods of excellence and some dead spots. It is the only mystery series that I actively keep up with as it's released, so take that for what it's worth.
Strangely (or perhaps not) I found the ashram storyline gripping and the historical murder storyline boring. Having gotten to know Sam Wyndham over three books, his battle with addiction and the rigorous ashram lifestyle was more compelling to me than a sepia-toned murder mystery that I know I'm only reading about because it's eventually going to catch up with him. Unfortunately, Mukherjee devotes more time and energy to the less interesting of the two narratives.
Halfway through, the plotlines merge and the Sergeant Surendranath Banerjee finally arrives on scene from his ancestral home in Dhaka, no longer content to be called "Surrender-not." Like Sam, he is a changed man, but for different reasons. The highlight of this book is a series of chapters, covering about 40 pages, in which the newly self-confident Surendranath icily interviews the suspects while clad in a homespun dhoti. These hill-station Britishers are affronted at being relentlessly questioned by a man who appears to them to be a servant, and for the reader it's not only a thrilling bit of mystery writing but a cathartic moment of liberation for a well-liked character.
Like the other books in this series, it has some sustained periods of excellence and some dead spots. It is the only mystery series that I actively keep up with as it's released, so take that for what it's worth.