Abir MUKHERJEE : A rising man - Sam Wyndham #1

Captain Sam Wyndham, former Scotland Yard detective, is a new arrival to Calcutta. Desperately seeking a fresh start after his experiences during the Great War, Wyndham has been recruited to head up a new post in the police force. But with barely a moment to acclimatise to his new life or to deal with the ghosts which still haunt him, Wyndham is caught up in a murder investigation that will take him into the dark underbelly of the British Raj.
A senior British official has been murdered, and a note left in his mouth warns the British to quit India : or else. With rising political dissent and the stability of the Raj under threat, Wyndham and his two new colleagues – arrogant Inspector Digby, who can barely conceal his contempt for the natives and British-educated, but Indian-born Sargeant Banerjee, one of the few Indians to be recruited into the new CID – embark on an investigation that will take them from the luxurious parlours of wealthy British traders to the seedy opium dens of the city.

One of the good things about writing reviews a day or two after you've finished a book is that you find out if it stays on your mind or not. I had first rated this book 4 stars, but I bumped it to 4.5 because I kept thinking about it, not particularly the murder per se, but the atmosphere and the violence of this part of history.
It also made me wonder (again) how I love British literature so much, almost everything British actually, when you find so much racism, so much violence, so much moral superiority, so much self satisfaction with a clear conscience. If so many people around the globe, including me, speak English, it's for a good reason : the British Empire was ruthless and dominating. And think about the Brexit, they're setting themselves apart again.
Hem, back to the book !
Captain Wyndham is a damaged man after having gone to war, the devastating first World War, a period where he saw so many horrors, barely escaped death, lost his brother and lost his beloved wife. When he comes to India, he has a weakness for morphine - it does not control his life (yet), but it's there, in the background, and might come back to bite some part of his anatomy later. But don't think everything is gloom and misery in this novel, the bigger part of the plot centers around the British domination over the Indians. There is some humour, even, like for instance in chapter 21 when Sam thinks about British birds and compares them to Indian birds.
On some buildings, there are signs : "Forbidden to dogs and Indians" (that reminded me so very much of the "défense de cracher par terre et de parler breton" - forbidden to spit on the floor and speak Breton - that were everywhere in French Brittany.)
The author turns it differently (sorry, rough translation here, I read the book in French) :
In front of a Forbidden to dogs and Indians sign :
"Banerjee noticed my disapproval.
"Don't worry, sir, said he. We know where our place is. Moreover, the British have realised in one century and a half things that our civilisation hasn't in more than four thousand years." (...) "We never could teach dogs to read."
I found it interesting that the British author Abir Mukherjee chose a British military man as main character in this story and that he chose not to condemn all British people : as he says, when the British first arrive in Indian, they're not all that bad, racists and loating native people, it's worse : they become so. And it might happen to Captain Wyndham too, he noticed some signs here and there.
This books has so many good points : Miss Grant and the look upon mixed bloods, on women, violence and non-violence, the slaughter of Amritsar. The period is thoroughly researched and the writing very evocative.
A very, very good beginning.