Smoke and Ashes

I finished A Death in the East and, boy, I really hated it. It annoyed me. It was clear that instead of writing a historical novel that author Abir Mukherjee was intent on making sure we were quite aware that he thought the British were racist pigs.

In the meantime, he forgot to write a compelling story with compelling characters. Listen, I don't mind that Surrender-not demanded that Sam call him by his real name. (About time.) But the way this is all handled just seems way too self-consciously politically correct rather than the evolution of their relationship. It was a potentially good point of character development shot to hell by unimaginative and mediocre writing.

Awful. Awful. Awful. And I saw it coming from a mile away who committed the last murder. But surely, I thought, the author wouldn't go for this tired cliché. No. Never. (Not to mention the cosmic-like set of coincidences it would have take to bring the principle players of this novel together.)

Then I read from a reviewer that this book was supposedly an homage to Agatha Christie. Well, I generally like Agatha Christie. But don't try this at home. She can get away with shtick that I think most others couldn't.

So...yes (spoiler alert for Mr. Flu), it was indeed possible that the author was going to reach for the cliched plot point of the "deep-mole" type of murder revenge. I'm going to marry this ghastly man, let him make love to me, beat me, and otherwise give up the best years of my life so that I can have that Snidely Whiplash-like last moment of cold revenge just when it feels right.

Oh goodness. As Dr. Smith from "Lost in Space" is famous for saying: The pain, the pain. And we never do unravel the mystery of the dead Belgian. And we never have any kind of wrap-up with Brother Shankar and his club-med ashram in the middle of nowhere. No final "Thank you" from Wyndham. No parting thoughts on getting clean.

Preston may have been a poof but that red herring was never reeled in. This book is so rotten in so many ways, it would take a screed about a quarter of the length of the original book to describe it all.

I'm with you, Surrender-not. Let's just get the hell back to Calcutta.

It's the little data points such as this that ruin getting lost in a good story. It was soooooo stupid that Wyndham pokes the proverbial scorpion with a stick and then is oblivious about any possible repercussions.



It's hard to know what's going on. But this is one of the later books. This book #4 (of 5) was published in May 2020. The first book in the series (which I haven't read) was published in May of 2017. "Wokeness" has accelerated, particularly in 2020 (or even in 2019 when this was probably written).

An intelligent and balanced critique of British rule (as well as Indian primitivism) would be more than welcome. And some of the books handle this much more deftly than book #4 which has the earmarks of "wokeness." It's not enough to show historical behavior. One must be constantly making sure that the reader knows that you don't approve of it.



He just kept adding on top of dumb, dumber, and dumbest.

When it became pretty clear to me that Mrs. Carter was the murderer, I said to myself, "Let's hope the writer doesn't make a rather weak story into a laughable cliche' by having one of Caine's early victims a relative of Mrs. Carter." Sure enough the writer did it. 

I agree with the points you made in this regard and would like to make another one. Dicken's was well know for using almost unbelievable coincidences play a major part in his stories. Many observed this fact. But the coincidence of Mrs. Carter running into Caine in India some 4,000 miles away and 15 years later is about as far-fetched as can be imagined. She was not searching for him as she believed him to be dead. He lived in a very remote part of India (look where Assam is on a map) and ran a business there, i.e he wasn't a trader in Calcutta which was a main administrative city for the Brits, and therefore had a reasonably large British population. 

I also found Wyndham was a bit dense as to figuring our how Caine had been murdered.  Perhaps I am being too hard, but I have slept under a few mosquito nets in my life, and that metal hook in the ceiling is pretty obvious. And the bed frame being made of brass was a giveaway. 

Finally, I really disliked the last scene between Wyndham and Banerjee. 


In other words, I am not doing this for you out of friendship or collegeality or because it is just. I am doing you a favor and I will expect something in return. This smells like the approach the Spillers made to Wyndham, which was nothing more than a business arrangement. I don't see Wyndham and Banerjee staying close. 

This is not surprising as the author admits that this book was written as a call against "populism." In his notes he writes, 

Like many people, Ive been saddened by the condition in which Britain, and much of the world, finds itself. From the United States to Europe and Asia, the rise of populism has seen the growth of anger, extremism, fear of the other, and the erosion of tolerance and decency. 

In the UK, much of this anger has been directed at immigrant: on those coming to our shores either as refugees or simply in search of a better life for their families. 

This is the type of dishonest pablum the globalist left has been using for decades. I find the phrase "fear of the other" particularly silly and dishonest.  

People don't have to "fear" others to disagree with them. They don't have to "fear" others in order to love their own country and culture and want to keep them from be diluted or destroyed. One doesn't have to fear some other person in order to dislike him. The left tries to play a psychological game with the word fear. They hope the normal person will react to the word thinking, "Hah, I'll show you I am not afraid of others. Go ahead an let more illegal immigrants stay here." It doesn't work.  

The left tries to convince us that we are "racists" if we don't want a country overrun by tens-of-millions of foreigners who lower wages and raise prices due to their large numbers. If I love my house painted white, it is not fear which keeps me from letting a foreigner paint it blue. It is taste and preference and I don't feel any need to adjust either for a bunch of aliens who are coming here. 

And all for a friggin' aunt? I can see doing that for a sister. But an aunt? Just hire someone to kill him and be done with it if you feel that strongly about it.

On the other hand, she also wanted the money. But then, again, terrible writing. She is never made out to be a money-whore in the guise of avenging angel – which would have been one hell of an interesting character if this lackluster writer had gone that route. Did he ever read his stuff through before publishing it? I wonder. It's so schlepped out.



Far far fetched. Uber-fetched. One could even say that was Yuge-fetched. A new word coined for this stupid story.

Yep. Assam is what you call "Way off the beaten path." Yugely so.



And the dolt unknowingly lugged a car battery to her shop. As soon as you see those marks on the chest, you look for metal and wires. And this guy calls himself a detective? (But it does seem that Surrender-not had figured this out even despite Wyndham tampering with the evidence.)

Was there any resolution to how Caine killed his first wife? Like I said, I did quite a bit of skimming in the 1905 timeline at one point. Did he electrocute her in the same way? After all, Bessie had noted the marks on her body. If so, how would Mrs. Carter ever learn of the method?



In Surrender-not's defense, his partner had become insufferable, including withholding vital evidence from him in the murder investigation that he was in charge of. That was added onto the other insults he received when questioning the white-privilege Brits. (And that's what white privilege looks like. Not the made-up fantasies of the modern Marxist mind.) I would say that it was the asshole, Wyndham, who broke the bond. I came out thoroughly disliking the guy too. And I agree. I don't see them staying close. Wyndham was a lot more likable when he wasn't sober. Some guys are just like that.

I wouldn't read another one of these books if you paid me. I've so come to dislike the Wyndham character. But if Surrender-not was the lead (and without Wyndham). I might. But then I don't expect this author to come out of the death spiral of this botched attempt at a crime novel.

Absolutely suspicious. And absolutely a stupid piece of writing by the author. Had Vogel been involved in something dodgy, then it would make sense. But he wasn't. His actions made no sense outside of picturing an author, after too many serial whiskeys, schlepping out a book to meet a deadline.

After reading the Author Notes, I sensed self-righteousness was behind this debacle.  The author was much more interested in making a political, and I am sure the twit thought moral point, than writing a half-decent story. What came out was neither a good novel, nor convincing propaganda. What came out is garbage. 

Henceforth, I will not be following the careers of Captain Wyndham or Sergeant Banerjee.