One-Line Summary
In 1920s Calcutta, the murder of a revered philanthropist at the cremation ghats reunites Wyndham and Banerjee in a case where cinema glamour, politics, and ash-hot secrets converge.
Opening Impression
The Burning Grounds rekindles Abir Mukherjee’s acclaimed series with the heat and texture of a living city. The novel opens on drifting smoke, a stunned crowd, and a body by the river—immediate proof of Mukherjee’s control of mood. Wyndham, disillusioned and politically stranded, collides again with Banerjee, idealism singed but intact. A public saint is dead; a city’s conscience is on trial. The atmosphere is electric, steeped in ritual, rumor, and the scent of burning sandalwood.
Synopsis
Summoned despite his fall from grace, Wyndham tracks the victim’s dealings through Calcutta’s newborn film studios—where moguls, actors, and politicians trade secrets like currency. Meanwhile Banerjee searches for a missing photographer, a woman whose vanished negatives hold clues to both art and treachery. Their paths cross amid reels, ledgers, and lies. From champagne premieres to labor alleys, Mukherjee’s Calcutta burns bright with contradiction. Each discovery deepens the mystery until the detectives face a truth that could ignite the whole city.
Analysis
Structure: Twin investigations—murder and disappearance—run on parallel rails before converging in a final, devastating reveal. The pacing is precise, more judicial than sensational, giving every clue its rightful weight.
Characterisation: Wyndham’s weary realism meets Banerjee’s moral fire; together they map the fault lines of empire. Side players—a starlet, a fixer, a commissioner bent on optics—add depth and friction to a vividly peopled canvas.
Style & Voice: Mukherjee’s writing sings with sensory clarity: tram bells, projector clicks, and monsoon heat. His dialogue carries wit and political charge, while the prose moves like film through a reel—measured, luminous, and unflinching.
Themes: Art as witness and weapon; empire’s collapsing façade; visibility and erasure in a colonised city. The burning grounds become metaphor—truth purified through fire, justice reshaped in smoke.
Verdict
The Burning Grounds is Mukherjee at full stride—an intelligent, atmospheric fusion of mystery and moral history. The puzzle intrigues, but its power lies in empathy: a portrait of friendship and conviction enduring in the heat of change. For readers of Sansom, Taylor, or historical thrillers that breathe, this is essential reading.
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