Abir Murkherjee: Death in the East, 9781787300576, Vintage UK, Penguin Random House, hardback, pub date November 14, 2019,Ebook available

I am a sucker for Abir Murkherjee’s historical crime series featuring sergeant police detective Sam Wyndham of the Calcutta police and his trusted, smart side kick, Indian Sergeant Surrender-not Banerjee.  “Death in the East” is the fourth in the series, I have read them all and they are all equally fabulous.  His first, “A rising man”, won the CWA Dagger Award in 2017 for historical crime fiction and rightly so. There is something fascinating about the atmospheric Raj setting that has pulled me in from the start, the description of India, its society and politics during the Indian independence movement and the last days of the Raj, not to forget some very clever plots.

“Death in the East” has two separate murder cases running parallel, one set in 1905 London and the other in Assam in 1922. Towards 3/4^th of the book they merge into one thrilling development with an unexpected turn in the story.

1905 London: a rookie Constable Sam has to investigate the murder of his ex- girlfriend Bessie Drummond who was found brutally beaten to death in her room in London's East End, with the door locked from the inside. He vows to find her killer despite some inexplicable facts bringing him into contact with very dangerous East End characters. The chain of events he sets into motion have a different effect than anticipated costing him dearly.

1922 A much older, sicker Sam has finally decided to end his opium addiction travelling to an ashram in the hills of Assam which is known for a miraculous cure concocted by a sacred monk. While puking his heart out during his opium withdrawal, the ghost of Bessie arises from the past in his dreams and Sam is sure he has also seen someone linked to her murder at a train station on his way to the ashram who was considered long dead.  When a young fellow inmate from the monastery is found dead, Sam’s detective instinct tell him he did not die by accident and he starts digging, creating some disasterous ripples which leads to yet another death...

I loved the atmospheric, parallel running crime stories set on different continents, all coming together in the end leading to a gripping grand finale.