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Captain Sam Wyndham and his sidekick Surrender-Not Banerjee return in this prize-winning historical crime series set in 1920s Calcutta.
India, 1921. Haunted by his memories of World War I, Captain Sam Wyndham is battling a serious addiction to opium that he must keep secret from his superiors in the Calcutta police force.
When Sam is summoned to investigate a grisly murder, he is stunned at the sight of the body: he's seen this before. Last night, in a drug addled haze, he stumbled across a corpse with the same ritualistic injuries. It seems like there's a deranged killer on the loose. Unfortunately for Sam, the corpse was in an opium den - and revealing his presence there could cost him his career.
With the aid of his quick-witted Indian Sergeant, Surrender-Not Banerjee, Sam must try to solve the two murders, all the while keeping his personal demons secret, before somebody else turns up dead.
"Starred Review. Mukherjee, who only gets better and better with each book, has established himself as a leading historical mystery writer." - Publishers Weekly
"It is the flamboyant evocation of 1920s Calcutta that makes this such a mesmerising read." - The Guardian
"Lush world-building, intricate character work, and remarkable wit. Mukherjee's work is playful while also offering a serious look at colonialism and cross-culture mystery." - CrimeReads
"Smoke and Ashes is Abir Mukherjee's best book yet; a brilliantly conceived murder mystery set amidst political and social turmoil. Beautifully crafted." - C. J. Sansom, New York Times bestselling author
This information about Smoke and Ashes was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
https://abirmukherjee.com/
Abir Mukherjee is the Times bestselling author of the Sam Wyndham series of crime novels set in Raj era India. His debut, A Rising Man, won the CWA Endeavour Dagger for best historical crime novel of 2017 and was nominated for the MWA Edgar for best novel. His second novel, A Necessary Evil, won the Wilbur Smith Award. His third novel, Smoke and Ashes, was chosen by the Sunday Times as one of the 100 Best Crime & Thriller Novels since 1945. Abir grew up in Scotland and now lives in London with his wife and two sons.
Name Pronunciation
Abir Mukherjee: AH-beer MOO-ker-jee
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