Definitely a candidate for my book of the year. A fabulous tale that entwines Sam Wyndham’s backstory as a young constable in London (that’s 1905) with his present day (that’s 1922) life as a policeman in India. This book takes us away from Calcutta as Sam’s trying to shake off his opium addiction by retreating to a monastary in the hills for treatment (I think it’s basically enforced cold turkey). I could get hung up on what might be a slightly excessive amount of coincidence in the plot but perhaps I missed something, and I’d rather remember the great amount of character development there is here. I was especially pleased with the delayed, but wonderful, appearance of his sergeant Surendranath Bannerjee. All in all it’s an excellent book, by far the best in a series that I’d already thought was pretty good, and what will stay with me is the feeling of optimism it invokes about the world then (1922) and, maybe, now (2019).