Smoke and Ashes

** A THE SUNDAY TIMES BEST 100 BEST CRIME NOVELS SINCE 1945**

''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...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2019 CWA SAPERE HI