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Abir Mukherjee

A Necessary Evil Hardcover – 15 June 2017

by Abir Mukherjee (Author)

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**CHOSEN AS ONE OF THE FINANCIAL TIMES' BEST CRIME BOOKS OF 2017****CHOSEN AS ONE OF THE TIMES' BEST HISTORICAL FICTION BOOKS OF 2017**India, 1920. Captain Wyndham and Sergeant Banerjee of the Calcutta Police Force investigate the dramatic assassination of a Maharajah's son.The fabulously wealthy kingdom of Sambalpore is home to tigers, elephants, diamond mines and the beautiful Palace of the Sun. But when the heir to the throne is assassinated in the presence of Captain Sam Wyndham and Sergeant 'Surrender-Not' Banerjee, they discover a kingdom riven with suppressed conflict. Prince Adhir was a moderniser whose attitudes - and romantic relationship - may have upset the more religious elements of his country, while his brother - now in line to the throne - appears to be a feckless playboy. As Wyndham and Banerjee desperately try to unravel the mystery behind the assassination, they become entangled in a dangerous world where those in power live by their own rules and those who cross their paths pay with their lives. They must find a murderer, before the murderer finds them...Praise for A Necessary Evil-'Even better than his first... What is most striking about Mukherjee?s novels is his infectious enjoyment of the human oddity of the British in India... Even better is his portrayal of the mix of opulence and spirituality that characterises Sambalpore under its sybaritic but benevolent maharaja... I can?t imagine anyone failing to enjoy it.' Daily Telegraph'A year ago I welcomed the arrival of Captain Sam Wyndham and his faithful Sergeant... and I am delight to report that his return is every bit as engaging... A story as satisfying and spicy as the very best tandoori.' Daily Mail'An intriguing and enjoyable crime novel.' Stylist

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Product details

Publisher : HARVILL/SECKER (15 June 2017)
Language: : English
Hardcover : 384 pages
ISBN-10 : 1911215124
ISBN-13 : 978-1911215127
Dimensions : 16.2 x 3.4 x 24 cm

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463 ratings

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"Even better than his first… What is most striking about Mukherjee’s novels is his infectious enjoyment of the human oddity of the British in India… Even better is his portrayal of the mix of opulence and spirituality that characterises Sambalpore under its sybaritic but benevolent maharaja… I can’t imagine anyone failing to enjoy it" (Jake Kerridge Daily Telegraph)

"A year ago I welcomed the arrival of Captain Sam Wyndham and his faithful Sergeant… and I am delight to report that his return is every bit as engaging" (Geoffrey Wansell Daily Mail)

"An exceptional historical crime novel." (CJ Sansom)

"A journey into the dark underbelly of the British Raj." (Daily Express)

"An intriguing and enjoyable crime novel" (Sarah Shaffi Stylist)

Book Description

India, 1920. Captain Wyndham and Sergeant Banerjee of the Calcutta Police Force investigate the dramatic assassination of a Maharajah's son.

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Bruce R Sterling

Superb writing with a very satisfying storyline.

Reviewed in Australia on 5 October 2020

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Mature, captivating narrative style with a wonderful array of metaphors to paint the pictures. Loads of insight into the cultural backdrop of the era, and also a riping good yarn.

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Second in the series...

Reviewed in Australia on 19 June 2017

British crime novelist Abir Mukherjee has published his second mystery, "A Necessary Evil". It follows his first book in the series, "A Rising Man", and features Captain Sam Wyndham and his aide, Sargent "Surrender-not" Banerjee. The books are set in 1920 Calcutta (now Kolkata), where Wyndham - a former officer at Scotland Yard - has moved to for a change after his war-time service and the death of his wife. Mukherjee gives the reader a fascinating look at the post-Great War years in the waning years of the British Raj.

As I often write in reviews, a good historical novel can teach as well as entertain, and Mukherjee certainly does both in his books. Captain Wyndham is an interesting character who has to learn to live and work in steaming hot Calcutta, where Indian society in the Raj is so different than English society. Different mores and different politics and different police procedures often combine to make solving a crime much different in Bengal than in London. But murder is murder everywhere, as is political assassination and governmental cover-ups. Wyndham and Banerjee witness an assassination of the crown prince of the Kingdom of Sambolpore in a politically tense time in the Raj. Indian independence, which will come in 1947, had certainly been in the wind for years. They are charged with solving the crime - and a couple of more that follow - in both Calcutta and Sambolpore. Wyndham is fighting a growing addiction to opium, which often clouds his thinking. And as in most mysteries, there are both tangled identities and allegiances. But somehow, Wyndham and Banerjee pull the case together and the book ends well.

The only thing I didn't think rang true in this book is the character of Annie Grant, a half-Indian, half-British woman who Wyndham falls for. She was in the previous book, too, and I didn't feel her presence added much to that story, either. It was almost as if the publisher told Abir Mukherjee to add a bit of a love interest for Wyndham, but she is awkwardly drawn. She could have been left out of this book altogether. But I sure hope Mukherjee continues his Wyndham/Banerjee series. It's quite good.

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L. A. Hardy

Wyndham and Banerjee Return

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 April 2018

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Set a little over a year after the events of A Rising Man, A Necessary Evil picks up the story of Captain Sam Wyndham and his Sergeant, Surendranath Banerjee. After Banerjee’s friend is assassinated, Wyndham and his sidekick must find a way to travel far outside their jurisdiction to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Thankfully, neither character has stood still in the intervening months. Sam Wyndham continues to struggle with his conscience and bad habits, while Banerjee also wrestles with remaining a part of the system that sees him and his fellow Indians as little more than savages.

As for the plot, it twists and turns nicely, throwing suspicion first on one character then another before finally revealing who is behind the devious murders. (Yes, there’s more than one.) There’s some fascinating historical material regarding Indian religion and tradition, and a woman’s role in society during the period which, once again, Mukherjee handles sensitively while at the same time pulling no punches.

A strong second instalment of a very interesting series. Let’s hope the next one is as good!

7 people found this helpful

William Donelson

This is wonderfully plotted and paced, with just the right balance of action, description and dialogue

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 April 2018

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Superb! 5 stars.

This is wonderfully plotted and paced, with just the right balance of action, description and dialogue, steeped in a amazing variety of Indian culture and history, and seasoned with colourful characters and a dash of romance.

As in the first book, the mystery is complex, and we (and Sam) are presented with far more possible solutions than we can manage. Clues are presented frequently, along with red herrings, but it's so hard to tell the difference! Delightful and challenging.

This book is more courageous, confident and better than book #1. Well done!

As usual with my reviews, please first read the publisher’s blurb/summary of the book. Thank you.

Book epigraph before page one:
You can’t make an omelette without breaking heads.

Quotes and thoughts below:

In Calcutta, Prince Adhir to Sam ...
We’ve surrendered this land to you and for what? A few fine words, fancy titles and scraps from your table over which we bicker like bald men fighting over a comb.’

Sam to Adhir as they ride in a silver Rolls Royce, plated with solid silver!
‘A prince, a priest and a policeman drive past the Bengal Club in a Rolls-Royce …’ I said. ‘It sounds like the opening to a not very amusing joke.’
‘On the contrary,’ said the prince. ‘If you think about it, it is actually most amusing.’

The lovely Annie Grant appears again, although Sam somewhat blew up their romance in the previous book, stupid git.
I imagine most women would go off a man who’d accused them of complicity in murder. I had of course tried to explain that I hadn’t technically accused her of anything; but it’s difficult to resurrect a romance by resorting to technicalities.

According to Surrender-not, Calcutta was where the science of modern fingerprint detection was born. He claimed it was two Bengalis –one a Hindu, the other a Mohammedan –who’d done the work. Of course the classification system they’d devised bore not their names, but that of their supervisor, Edward Henry. He’d gone on to receive a knighthood and become commissioner of Scotland Yard.

(Wikipedia does remember and credit their names, but like most bosses of any race or nationality, the technique bears his name. In fact, one of my bosses during my research at MIT tried to steal my work, as well as that of three other graduate students in following years.)
"The Henry Classification System is a long-standing method by which fingerprints are sorted by physiological characteristics for one-to-many searching. Developed by Hem Chandra Bose, Azizul Haque and Sir Edward Henry in the late 19th century for criminal investigations in British India, it was the basis of modern-day AFIS (Automated Fingerprint Identification System) classification methods up until the 1990s."

The monsoon. Far more than just rain, it sustained life, brought forth the promise of new birth, broke the heat and vanquished drought. It was the country’s saviour, India’s true god.

Monsoon in Calcutta

Walking into Howrah station was akin to entering Babel before the Lord took issue with their construction plans. All the peoples of the world, gathered under the station’s soot-stained glass roof.

Howrah Train Station

The murder weapon, a Colt Paterson revolver, patented by Samuel Colt in 1836

45%
Some delightful, ribald humour here in the provenance of Carmichael's golf bag! Well done, Mukherjee!

Annie and Sam:
It's interesting how Mukherjee has placed Annie more out-of-reach of Sam now. She started as a mere secretary, although a beautiful and important one, in the first book. Their's was a gentle romance of almost-equals in societal terms, although clouded by her involvement with the shady industrialist, Buchan.

In this book though, Annie's newly wealthy status has elevated her into circles above Sam, and the heartache he feels is poignant. She is not unkind to Sam, her respect and attraction still remain, but she clearly relishes her increased power and freedom, and the romantic attentions of the powerful and wealthy here. The loss of his dead wife and the possible loss of Annie are dangerously dark clouds in Sam's life, especially with his growing addiction to the escape of opium.

Colonel Arora's pick for the midnight run: Alfa Romeo 20/80

Before the tiger hunt...
A bearer handed out the guns. Good ones, too. Made by Purdey’s of Mayfair -gunmakers to the King, as well as to international aristocracy and any other rich bastard who felt a need to shoot things that didn’t shoot back.

And to end, an outstanding, breakneck climax, and a masterfully complex and satisfying resolution. Once again, we arrive at the surprising solution just as Sam does - wonderful!

She took my hand. ‘I hope we meet again some day, Captain. In the meantime, remember what I told you. Your soul craves the truth. You have that now. Justice is a matter for the gods.’

5 people found this helpful

sevenpin

Impressive Historical Thriller

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 May 2018

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After Mukherjee's stunning debut, The Rising Man, he follows up with this equally brilliant sequel with the return of Captain Sam Wyndham and Sergeant 'Surrender-not' Banerjee in the India of the 1920s. Britain is trying desperately to keep their hold on a country where unrest bubbles everywhere. The Viceroy may be the most important man in India, but the civil servant is uneasy and merely treading water until his successor can take over, his goal to avoid the ignominy of being the man responsible for losing Britain its Jewel in the Crown. To this end he is pushing to establish the toothless Chamber of Princes as a fig leaf suggesting that change is underway. Banerjee's Harrow and Cambridge friend, Prince Adhir, is key in persuading other Princes to fall in line with these plans. Adhir, however, is a moderniser and contemptuous of this latest idea, and worried about notes he has received that warn he is in danger. Wyndham and Banerjee are in the car with Adhir when he is assassinated by a man dressed as a priest at the Rath Yathra, a procession of Lord Jaginnath, in Calcutta. The assassin is tracked down but after burning evidence, shoots himself dead. The Viceroy wants this to be the end but Wyndham knows the true perpetrators of the deed reside in the Prince's kingdom of Sambalpore in Orissa. With Lord Taggart, a plan is concocted where Banerjee is named the emissary to the Prince's funeral and Wyndam is accompanying him on the pretext of being on holiday.

Sambalpore is decadently wealthy, with a history of trading in opium but now reliant on its fabulous diamond mines and home of the opulent Palace of the Sun. The Royal Court is a hotbed of intrigue and plots, and the Anglo-Indian Diamond Company and its director, Sir Ernest Fitzmaurice, are negotiating to buy the diamond mines. Adhir's brother, the playboy and womanising Prince Punit will become Maharajah when his elderly and frail father dies. Derek Carmichael is the foreign office representative in the kingdom, trying to implement the Viceroy's orders for Sam to return to Calcutta. Wyndham is forced to confront his assumptions and prejudices of how the natives and royals are meant to behave. He is rocked to the core when he is confronted with Katherine Pemberley, an educated Englishwoman, patently in love with an Indian man, whilst it is rampant and accepted practice that white men have relationships with Indian women, it is unacceptable and beyond the pale that a native man be involved with a white woman. Annie Grant returns, although she has yet to forgive Sam for viewing her as a murder suspect previously, but his obsession with her merely grows to gargantuan proportions as does his jealousy of any man in her vicinity. Sam and Banerjee face a rising tide of dead bodies, where every theory they have proves to be inadequate in their difficult investigation in search of the truth. Even if they are successful, will justice be beyond their grasp?

Mukerjee has undertaken impeccable research as he writes atmospherically of the sweltering and vibrant India on the cusp of the monsoon rains, under the turbulent political climate of paranoia amongst the British, insisting the Princes play their part in supporting their rule. We get a glimpse into the world of the wildly rich and decadent powerful princes with their tiger hunts, sense of entitlement, concubines and many wives. Wyndam is a flawed man of this historical period, subject to the entrenched thinking of the time, despite his efforts to be a more liberal thinking man. His opium habit looks as if he is in on the path of becoming a prisoner of his need for the drug. What is wonderful to observe is that his relationship with Surrender-not is becoming more natural and equitable, developing into a partnership where the two trust each other and work well together. This a superb, complex and totally gripping portrayal of India in the 1920s with an insightful and brutal picture of the culture, attitudes, and practices of the British and the Indian Princes with their divisions as to the way forward. I can only urge you to read this fantastic piece of historical fiction Highly recommended!

2 people found this helpful

Janice Staines

Full of gung ho and reminiscent of Boy’s Own adventures

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 November 2020

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This is the second in the Sam Wyndham series of books. It’s a year since we first met Sam in ‘A Rising Man’ and he and ‘Surrender-not’ are now living in an apartment in a rundown area of Calcutta. Surrender-not receives notice that an old university friend is in town and wishes to meet up with him. Nothing unusual about that, you may think, but this friend is none other than Prince Adbir, heir to the Maharajah of Sambalpore. And so begins this adventure.

During their meeting, Prince Adbir is murdered right in front of them. The assassin runs off with Sam in hot pursuit. Sam catches the assassin, but he commits suicide rather than allowing himself to be taken into custody.

What follows is a story that Shakespeare himself would have been proud of. A power struggle in a foreign land, where jealousy and rivalry abounds and money speaks louder than any truth and justice.

Sam and Surrender-not are tasked with finding out who killed Prince Adbir, and why, and their hunt takes them into some very dark and mysterious areas of political and religious intrigue along the way, with lots of twists to hold the reader’s attention. But, will Sam’s addictions and obsessions ultimately be his downfall?

This is another great insight into Colonial India of the 1920s by the author, full of gung ho and reminiscent of ‘Boy’s Own’ adventures’. I enjoyed it immensely and am looking forward to reading, ‘Smoke And Ashes’, the next in the series.

Graham of Watton

Very enjoyable

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 November 2019

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'A Necessary Evil' is the second book in Abir Mukherjee's excellent historical crime thriller series set in India in the years immediately after the First World War and in which the main character is Captain Sam Wyndham of the Calcutta police force. In the first book in the series, 'A Rising Man', Mukherjee introduced us to the main characters in the series - Wyndham himself, a dogged investigator who despite an opium habit is a decent man; Sergeant ‘Surrender-not’ Banerjee, a shy and intelligent 'native' member of the police force; and Annie Grant, a beautiful Anglo-Indian woman who Wyndam is attracted to. In 'A Necessary Evil', Wyndam and Banerjee travel to the independent kingdom of Sambalpore in an attempt to discover who is behind the assassination of the Maharaja's eldest son.
I liked 'A Rising Man' and enjoyed 'A Necessary Evil' even more. It's a very enjoyable read and I shall definitely be buying the other books in the series.

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