Death In The East – by Abir Mukherjee

I have always been fascinated by the British Raj. It might be a politically incorrect statement in today’s India. Of course, as an Indian, I am not fond of the 150+ years of rule, tyranny and oppression that the British wrecked in this country. But since I believe that the apathy and greed of most of the Indian royalty and general populace alike, was equally, if not largely, responsible for allowing the British to first gain a foothold, and then to flourish in this country, I do not look at that era with pure hatred.

To cut a long story short, when I read that this novel is set in the British Era I did not think twice before checking it out.

This is the 4^th in the Wyndham & Banerjee series of crime novels. The plot keeps alternating between 1905’s London and 1922’s Assam. Captain Sam Wyndham has come to Jatinga, a remote village in Assam, as a final resort, to rid himself of his opium addiction. But his past does not seem to let go of him. As he endures the grueling detoxification regime at the Ashram, his mind keeps flashing back to his time in Whitechapel, an area in London’s East End. The enormous guilt of not having been able to save his one-time sweetheart, Bessie Drummond, so many years ago plagues him now more than ever.

And then death comes knocking once again. This time, at the Ashram’s door when a fellow patient is found dead in a stream. The jury is still out on whether it is a murder or an accident. As Wyndham completes his treatment and goes out to spend a few days with another Britisher in Jatinga, the quaint village is rocked by yet another death – that of a very wealthy and powerful man. However, this man has a connection with Wyndham’s past. A connection that Wyndham would do anything to forget. Though this death, by all accounts, seems to be a natural one, Wyndham cannot quite shake off his suspicion that it is anything but that. Luckily for him, in an answer to his earlier letter, his Sergeant, Surendranath (or Surrender-not!) Banerjee, arrives in town in time to help him unravel this mystery.

The novel keeps you engaged as you try to work out who could have killed Bessie, if the death of the patient is an accident and who, if anyone, killed beautiful Emma’s rich husband. The novel has intermittent references to events from India’s freedom struggle like the non-cooperation movement and the Chauri-Chura incident. We all know that Indians (and dogs!) were not allowed in the British clubs set up in India. But the references can still rile you. The author has managed to beautifully capture both - the earlier camaraderie between Sam and Surendranath and Sam’s later realization that though most of it is intact, a subtle but sure change has crept in.

I suspected that the library does not have the first 3 books of this series – because if they had had them, the assistant would have handed me the first one instead. When I went to return the book, I inquired and my suspicions were confirmed. I told them that I liked this one a lot and to let me know in case they bought the others.

Let’s see if I get to read more of the Wyndham-Banerjee, or should I say Banerjee-Wyndham, stories.