A Necessary Evil by Abir Mukherjee
A mystery book review
A Necessary Evil, set in India in 1920, is the second in a mystery series (after A Rising Man) featuring a British colonial police captain and the native sergeant who assists him. This time, Captain Sam Wyndham travels outside Colonial India to Sambalpore, a tiny but wealthy kingdom still nominally independent of the British. The heir to the Sambalpore throne has been murdered practically under Wyndham's nose, a galling experience which launches him on a search for the truth that requires certain evasions of the truth. Political sensitivities mean he must travel unofficially, claiming to be on holiday, while Sergeant Surendranath Banerjee ("Surrender-not") travels as the "official representative of the Imperial Police Force." One complication among many is Wyndham's opium addiction, which impairs his focus when he is suffering withdrawal symptoms or the daze from a recent fix.
The novel's many twists and turns are not the only reason it's so absorbing. Wyndham, a newcomer to India, needs Banerjee's assistance to understand customs like the markings painted on an assassin's forehead. Even Banerjee's knowledge, in this vast and varied country, is not extensive enough to decipher every clue; the language of a note found in the slain prince's hotel suite is unknown to him. As Wyndham discovers the complexities of India and the Kingdom of Sambalpore, the reader too must discard stereotypes. For example, the British are not the first to have up-ended the pecking order in odd and ironic ways. The Sambalpore prince points out in the novel's early pages that the color of his skin bars him, despite his high rank, from entering a British men's club. But in another context, Banerjee, a member of the Brahmin caste, outranks both Wyndham and the prince.
The puzzles and paradoxes of early twentieth-century India, interpreted by such a skilled mystery author, should support any number of fascinating sequels. (2018; 374 pages, including an Author's Note separating history from fiction)