Book Summary and Reviews of The Burning Grounds by Abir Mukherjee

The Burning Grounds by Abir Mukherjee

The Burning Grounds

Wyndham & Banerjee Mysteries #6

by Abir Mukherjee

  • Critics' Consensus (7):
  • Published:
  • Nov 2025, 400 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Award-winning crime novelist Abir Mukherjee returns to his brilliant mystery series set in late-1920s Calcutta, as Sam Wyndham and Surendranath Banerjee must reunite to solve a high profile murder and disappearance.

In The Burning Ghats of Calcutta, where the dead are laid to rest, a man is found murdered, his throat cut from ear to ear.

The body is that of a popular philanthropist and patron of the arts. A man, who was, by all accounts, beloved by all. So what could possibly be the motive for murder? Though out of favour with the Imperial Police Force, Detective Sam Wyndham is assigned to the case, and finds himself thrust into the glamorous world of cinema when his investigation leads him to a film the victim was funding.

Meanwhile Sam's former colleague, Surendranath Banerjee, recently returned from Europe after three years running from the fallout of his last case, is searching for a vanished photographer, one of the first women in the profession. When he discovers the missing woman is somehow linked to Sam's murder investigation, the two men are forced to work together once again—but will Wyndham and Banerjee be able to put their differences aside to solve the case?

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"In this follow-up to The Shadows of Men, Mukherjee subtly recaps key events from previous novels so that even new readers can step in and be up to speed. The gritty, noirish tone of Sam's POV chapters adds to the book's intensity and is supported by well-crafted descriptions of life in 1920s Calcutta. Anyone who enjoys period mysteries should give this series a try." —Library Journal

"With writing as striking as its plot twists, Abir Mukherjee's sixth Wyndham & Banerjee historical mystery is an intoxicating brew. With a cracking double mystery plot, The Burning Grounds demonstrates why CWA Dagger Award-winner and twice Edgar-nominated author Abir Mukherjee is an international bestseller and critical favorite."—BookPage

"The flamboyant evocation of 1920s Calcutta make this a mesmerising read." —The Guardian

This information about The Burning Grounds 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.

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Author Information

Abir Mukherjee Author Biography

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

Other books by Abir Mukherjee at BookBrowse

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