Smoke and Ashesis Abir Mukherjee's best book yet; a brilliantly conceived murder mystery set amidst political and social turmoil beautifully crafted.CJ SANSOM **From the winner of the 2017 CWA Historical Dagger Award** India, 1921. Haunted by his memories of the Great War, Captain Sam Wyndham is battling a serious addiction to opium that he must keep secret from his superiors in the Calcutta police force.

When Sam is summoned to investigate a grisly murder, he is stunned at the sight of the body: hes seen this before. Last night, in a drug addled haze, he stumbled across a corpse with the same ritualistic injuries. It seems like theres a deranged killer on the loose. Unfortunately for Sam, the corpse was in an opium den and revealing his presence there could cost him his career.

With the aid of his quick-witted Indian Sergeant, Surrender-not Banerjee, Sam must try to solve the two murders, all the while keeping his personal demons secret, before somebody else turns up dead.

Set against the backdrop of the fervent fight for Indian independence, and rich with the atmosphere of 1920s Calcutta, Smoke and Ashes is the brilliant new historical mystery in this award-winning series.

Abir Mukherjeegrew up in the west of Scotland. At the age of fifteen, his best friend made him readGorky Parkand hes been a fan of crime fiction ever since. The child of immigrants from India,A Rising Man, his debut novel, was inspired by a desire to learn more about a crucial period in Anglo-Indian history that seems to have been almost forgotten. It won the Harvill Secker/Daily Telegraphcrime writing competition and became the first in a series starring Captain Sam Wyndham and Surrender-not Banerjee. Abir lives in London with his wife and two sons.