Abir Mukherjee: A necessary evil, 9781784704773, Vintage (Penguin Random House UK) paperback, March 15, 2018

German edition: Ein notwendiges Übel, Heyne Verlag, 9783453439207, Juli 2018, paperback
 

I have to confess, I have become a big fan of Captain Sam Wyndham and Surrender-Not Banerjee, his Indian colleague, after having read “A Rising Man” for which he won the 2017 CWA Historical Dagger Award and now “A Necessary Evil”.  Much like Donna Leon’s atmospheric Venice novels, this historical crime fiction set in the 1920’s British ruled India is so colorful and smart; within a few pages it transports you into the British Raj with its exotic settings and obnoxious social regiments.  I cannot wait to read the third book, “Smoke and Ashes” due to be published in June.  “A Necessary Evil” is even better than his first book in my opinion.

When Captain Wyndham and Surrender Not meet with the soon to be ruler of the Kingdom of Sambalpore Prince Adhir in Calcutta, they have no idea they will be sharing the last hours in the Princes life becoming witnesses to his assassination.  Wyndham is able to shot the assassin who by his facial paintings is identified as a follower of Lord Jagannath, a Hindu deity.  The old Maharaja is inconsolable and requests the assistance of Surrender Not who was a friend of his favorite son at university.  Sam Wyndam travels alongside Surrender Not to Sambalpore to serve as an adviser on orders of the Viceroy. The

investigation by a British official looking into the death of an Indian prince would hardly be considered politically correct.  When both arrive in Sambalpore they find a court that hasn’t changed much in centuries with several high court officials having problems with the modern views Prince Adhir was about  to introduce.  The list of people who would benefit from the Prince's death becomes longer and longer the deeper Sam and Surrender-Not start digging, beginning with his half-brother Punit and the third young wife of his father, the old Maharaja….. 

I will not reveal more, the ending is superb and unexpected. If you enjoy historical crime novels looking critically at the politics of their time, with a tongue in cheek humor and cleverness, this is a brilliant series to read. Enjoy! 

Suzanne Rindell: Eagle & Crane, Putnam (Penguin Random House US) 9780399184291, 3. July 2018

When I was working at Penguin, we published Suzanne Rendell’s first novel, “The other Typist”, a brilliant, clever story I absolutely loved. Needless to say I was more than happy to read the proof of her upcoming latest book due July 2019.  “Eagle & Crane” is set in the time of the Depression in California following the lives of the Thorn and Yamada family and Earl Shaw’s Flying Circus.

This epic story is a doorstopper of a book, over 430 pages long which I personally found too long winded at times but the book gathers drama during the last 100 pages.  Eagle & Crane opens in 1943 with a lone FBI Agent looking into the disappearance of Kenichi and Harry Yamada from an internment camp. When inspecting the Yamada farm, he is surprised to find Louis Thorn and Ava Brooks residing on the Yamada property.  A dramatic turn of events occurs when a plane seems to drop from the sky crashing on the land during Bonner’s visit; two disfigured corpses are pulled from the wreck.  They appear to be Harry and Kenichi Yamada but something does not sit right with Agent Bonner and he starts digging despite the local sheriff’s refusal to help.

The Thorn family has felt hostile towards their Japanese neighbors for years accusing them of swindling them from their most fertile piece of land. Harry Yamada and Louis Thorn used to be friends as children but became estranged as adults. Bonner is surprised to unearth they both worked as aerial stuntmen in the Earl Shaw Flying Circus. With daredevil stunts travelling from rural towns to bigger cities they earned a reputation as “Eagle” and “Crane” gaining certain fame and excellent pay.  Rindell spins an entertaining yarn introducting two strong female characters, Ava Brooks and her mother Cleopatra, how they ended up in Earl Shaw’s travelling Flying Circus,  switching back and forth between the past and 1943.

The tragedy of Japanese Americans internment during WWII is fictionalized through the Yamada and Thorn family using these terrible events in US history as the basis for the novel.  Another inspiration for the novel came from Rindell’s family love for aviation.

“Eagle & Crane” is an entertaining read I enjoyed but it never really gripped me as   “The other typist” certainly did.   

Cara Hunter:  Into the Dark, Penguin Random House UK, 9780241283202, paperback,  Publication date: July 2018

 

 I read Cara Hunter’s “Close to Home” last year, the novel was chosen by the Richard and Judy book Club giving it a high popular rating. Her second novel due to be published in July was sent to me as a proof. Using the same set of Oxford detectives around DI Fawley , “Into the Dark” is even better than the first novel, superbly spun with many unexpected turns; I was completely hooked. A very fine, non bloody psychological thriller I can wholeheartedly recommend. 

A woman and child are discovered locked in a basement of a posh Oxford neighbourhood when a wall collapses that builders are trying to fix during renovation work on the house next door.  For the detectives involved, similarities to the Fritzl case in Austria immediately come to mind. The woman appears to have been held captive for some time and is in a very agitated state.  The little boy doesn't seem to be able to talk.  When the police arrive, they discover that the only person living in the house is an elderly academic who is in a state of neglect and seems to be suffering from dementia. Hardly the person capable of committing such a crime.

Cara Hunter is excellent in describing the detective’s step by step approach when trying to put pieces of the puzzle together. With the stress mounting in the team, all their character flaws are exposed.  Just when they believe to be close to solving the crime, previous theories start to collapse with newly discovered findings.  When the body of a missing female journalist who had been living around the corner from the crime scene is found in the garden shed, the case receives a new twist and they are forced to take a new look at suspects. I will not go into further details but some 400 pages later of this well-crafted psychological thriller the outcome is unexpected.