Year 1919. Britain rules India. 150,000 British oversee country with a population of 300 million. Local people started to question moral and legal justification for presence of foreign power on their soil. More they question the more Britain is becoming desperate to maintain its hold on India, because you know, without India there is no British Empire. Draconian laws are introduced directed against locals that further undermines British positions.
So this is background setting when novel opens with gruesome discovery of a murdered British high placed civil servant in the suburb of Calcutta. Former Scotland Yard detective recently hired in Calcutta police division is tasked to investigate the crime.
It is very interesting and occasionally funny novel. It shows double standards of British rulers (or any foreign rulers for that matter) filled with widespread prejudices against native population. They looked down on country and people who made them a "rising man".
Highly recommended.
posted by David
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