BOOK OF THE MONTH
A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee
Calcutta has not played a large part in crime fiction. Abir Mukherjee’s splendid debut, A Rising Man, demonstrates what an exciting setting it is; and his hero, Captain Sam Wyndham, is a winning creation. It’s 1919. Wyndham had joined the Metropolitan Police, seen action in the First World War and suffered the death of his young wife. Becoming a detective in Calcutta is his escape. Almost immediately, he is confronted with the mutilated body of a senior official of the British Raj. In his mouth is a note: “No more warnings. English blood will run in the streets. Quit India.” Against a backdrop of political unrest, Wyndham and his team — Inspector Digby, an old hand who resents being given orders by the inexperienced Wyndham, and the clever young Sergeant Banerjee — pursue their duties in the atmospheric city.
Harvill Secker, 384pp, £12.99. To receive this book for a discounted price, call 0845 2712134 or visit thetimes.co.uk/bookshop
Different Class by Joanne Harris
Roy Straitley, the principal narrator of Joanne Harris’s wonderful Different Class, will be familiar to readers of Harris’s 2005 novel, Gentlemen & Players. He has now been the Latin master at St Oswald’s boys’ school for 34 years. Never married, he’s 66, tired, lonely and immovably fixed in his ideas and behaviour. The once popular school is in decline, as is the demand for Latin, and there have been unsettling incidents. A new head is appointed, a former pupil, full of ideas to modernise and do away with the traditions that Straitley so cherishes. The other narrator is a precocious, unnamed 14-year-old pupil at the school in 1975. As the novel develops, the reader is lured into trying to identify him, and usually failing. We are told that there have been deaths, and murder, but not the circumstances, nor the victims. Slowly, Harris reveals tiny clues, withholding full explanations until the startling denouement. Classy writing, sensitive and moving.
Doubleday, 413pp; £18.99. To receive this book for a discounted price, call 0845 2712134 or visit thetimes.co.uk/bookshop
The Plea by Steve Cavanagh
Legal thrillers incorporating lengthy nail-biting courtroom dramas are not so frequent today, so it’s a pleasure to welcome The Plea, a lively, clever and enjoyable example of the sub-genre. Steve Cavanagh is Irish but he writes vividly about American injustice. His lawyer hero, Eddie Flynn, was once a con man and he hasn’t entirely abandoned his old tricks. For reasons too complex to detail, the CIA and FBI force him to take on the defence of a billionaire accused of murdering his girlfriend, who is also an important client of a New York law firm suspected of big-time money laundering. Flynn’s participation places him and his wife in danger. The constant action is interrupted only by absorbing courtroom scenes.
Orion, 400pp, £13.99. To receive this book for a discounted price, call 0845 2712134 or visit thetimes.co.uk/bookshop
Die of Shame by Mark Billingham
On the surface, Die of Shame follows the old-fashioned whodunnit formula. Six linked people, one of whom dies violently; one of the others must be responsible. Enter a detective. Mark Billingham has turned the simple format into a riveting modern north London tale of addiction, unhappiness, psychoanalysis and keeping confidences. Every Monday evening Tony, a Hampstead shrink, meets five of his patients, all trying to recover from the excesses of drugs, drink, guilt and so on. They are asked to confess to their most shameful act. The interplay between the six is highly entertaining, and DI Nicola Tanner is a suitably intelligent copper.
Little, Brown, 415pp, £18.99. To receive this book for a discounted price, call 0845 2712134 or visit thetimes.co.uk/bookshop
The House of Fame by Oliver Harris
As The House of Fame opens, Nick Belsey, London noir’s most insubordinate detective, is squatting in the newly abandoned Hampstead police station, banned from working as he faces serious disciplinary charges. He is accidentally drawn into the publicity circus of the troubled super-celebrity Amber Knight when, disregarding his suspension from duty, he enthusiastically agrees to look into various violent and illegal shenanigans surrounding her. A sinister secretive society joins the story, making it even darker. Belsey is not one of noir fiction’s more sympathetic characters but his non-stop activity is exhaustingly gripping, and Oliver Harris is punchy and perceptive.
Jonathan Cape, 324pp, £12.99. To receive this book for a discounted price, call 0845 2712134 or visit thetimes.co.uk/bookshop