kjcharles 's review for:

Smoke and Ashes by Abir Mukherjee

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This series gets markedly better with every book. The author has always been brilliant at evoking the feel of the last years of the Raj and the 1920s Indian atmosphere, but the mystery plots are improving dramatically (and really deeply rooted in the history, which makes them work terrifically). Sam Wyndham is a great character, a decent and progressive Englishman of his time, yet so much unconscious racism and assumed cultural superiority revealed in his narrative. The characters, the plots and the settings could all sustain a book on their own, there's so much here, so the combination makes for a really superior read. Excellent stuff.