Smoke and Ashes

‘Smoke and Ashes is Abir Mukherjee's best book yet; a brilliantly conceived murder mystery set amidst political and social turmoil – beautifully crafted’ C.J. Sansom

India, 1921. Captain Sam Wyndham is battling a serious addiction to opium that he must keep secret from his superiors in the Calcutta police force.

But Wyndham finds himself in a tight spot when he stumbles across a corpse in an opium den. When he then comes across a second body bearing the same injuries, Wyndham is convinced that there's a deranged killer on the loose.

However, revealing his presence in the opium den could cost him his career.

As Wyndham and Sergeant 'Surrender-not' Banerjee set out to solve the two murders, Wyndham must tread carefully, keeping his personal demons secret, before someone else turns up dead...

'It is the flamboyant evocation of Calcutta that makes this such a mesmerising read' Guardian

Praise for the Sam Wyndham series:

‘A thought-provoking rollercoaster’ Ian Rankin

‘Confirms Abir Mukherjee as a rising star of historical crime fiction’
The Times

‘Cracking… A journey into the dark underbelly of the British Raj’ Daily Express

If you enjoyed Smoke and Ashes, look out for the fourth Sam Wyndham mystery, Death in the East in November 2019