Ahhh. The comfort of a well-known and liked series. Sam Wyndham and Surendranath Banerjee, English and Indian, solving a despicable crime in the case of a wealthy Indian but also a famous, beautiful actress.

Suren-da has come back to India, ordered by his father when he knew that his son had fallen in love with a French woman. Sam is wallowing in the depths of a bottle after the end of his relationship with Anne and his disciplining for allowing Surendranath to leave the country. Nothing, however, prevents a detective from a phoenix-like rise than the solving of the murder of a wealthy man.

This is not a demanding read like Shadow Ticket, but of course that is what makes it accessible. The themes are up front; colonial behaviour in India along with some complexity involved in Anglo-Indian children, including the desire for independence. These are front and centre in every chapter, described by both the main characters as they alternate in narrating the story. Using the two voices is an effective device to tell the story from both points of view, English and Indian, with much overlap and contributing to the main theme. I also liked the idea that although Surendranath wants independence for his country, he and Sam are dependent on one another both in their work and social lives.

It is only as we reach the end of the book we discover the main point which is the ‘passing’ of an Indian as English. The need to not tell the full truth about your parents and to make the most of a lighter coloured skin. I have read quite a few books with this theme, most notably The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett and Passing by Nella Larsen, but this is the first time I have come across it in a detective novel and it fits well. As Mukherjee explains at the end, it is based on a real story involving the actress Merle Oberon.

There is nothing wrong with a comfort read and I thoroughly enjoyed this one.