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Sep 16, 2016KateHillier rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
I usually don't read detective fiction like this. Maybe a one off mystery or so but it's rare that I feel invested enough to go through the often formulaic "english policeman" genre. Apparently all it takes is for it be a bit self aware of itself and to be moved to India. And to actually engage with its own time period. There be racism and colonialism abound but it is not sugarcoated or unexamined. Sam Wyndham is a Great War veteran, an ex-Scotland Yard officer, and a widower. He takes a job working as a a policeman in Calcutta and on his first day there is, of course, a rather prominent murder. There is a great deal of politics going on her. Racial (one of Sam's sergeants is Banderjee, whose first name no one has bothered to properly learn), interdepartmental, and a whole lot of cloak and dagger between different people in different industries. It's a really rich world and it's not something I've seen done before. It was a really spellbinding read and I hope there's going to be another one.