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‘The Shadows of Men’ by Abir Mukherjee

Book 5 in the Wyndham-Banerjee series set in 1920s Calcutta

Indian-Glaswegian writer Abir Mukherjee became a literary star around five years back with A Rising Man, when he paired a white cop, Captain Sam Wyndham, and his brown subordinate, Sergeant Surendranath Banerjee, and let them loose in pre-Independence Calcutta, solving crimes and getting into scrapes aplenty. 

The fifth book in the Wyndham-Banerjee series, The Shadows of Men, is just out, and it’s a rollicking read, one where Suren find himself a wanted man in the murder of a political leader in the midst of a city smouldering with communal tensions and cries for the British to leave India. 

From Calcutta, the action shifts to Bombay, and our detective duo find themselves trying to arrest “Mr. Haji Ali”. It’s these little instances of humour that make Mukherjee’s writing such a delight, and the occasional popping up of historical figures, like Subhas Bose. 

The book ends on an interesting note, and readers will be waiting with some impatience to know whether the duo will be reunited or go their separate ways now that the Swadeshi movement is gathering momentum.