Smoke and Ashes Audiobook By Abir Mukherjee cover art

Smoke and Ashes

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Smoke and Ashes

By: Abir Mukherjee
Narrated by: Simon Bubb
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Captain Sam Wyndham and his sidekick Surrender-Not Banerjee return in this prize-winning historical crime series set in 1920s Calcutta.

India, 1921. Haunted by his memories of World War I, Captain Sam Wyndham is battling a serious addiction to opium that he must keep secret from his superiors in the Calcutta police force.

When Sam is summoned to investigate a grisly murder, he is stunned at the sight of the body: he’s seen this before. Last night, in a drug-addled haze, he stumbled across a corpse with the same ritualistic injuries. It seems like there’s a deranged killer on the loose. Unfortunately for Sam, the corpse was in an opium den - and revealing his presence there could cost him his career.

With the aid of his quick-witted Indian Sergeant, Surrender-Not Banerjee, Sam must try to solve the two murders, all the while keeping his personal demons secret, before somebody else turns up dead.

©2018 Abir Mukherjee (P)2019 Audible, Inc. Thriller & Suspense

Featured Article: Best Mystery Series—Listens That'll Take You Right to the Crime Scene


While a standalone mystery is great when you're in the mood for a one-and-done, sometimes you want to feed your craving with an entire mystery series—knowing there's a world and characters you can keep coming back to for the satisfaction of solving crimes. With audiobooks, you get the added bonus of sinking deeper into the setting, clues, and suspects as the story is performed for you, so you'll feel like you're alongside detectives, ready to bust a case.

Featured Article Best Mystery Series Listens That'll Take You Right to the Crime Scene
Riveting Plot • Complex Characters • Excellent Accents • Historical Authenticity • Balanced Perspective • Fine Reading
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Books are great but narrator of first book WAS the voice of Wyndham. The upper crust accent of this narrator just does not work.

Need the narrator for the first book

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Sam continues to pursue justice and the truth. Enjoyable series. Different narrator but still good.

Pursuit of the truth

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it was another interesting story set against the backdrop of Raj India. This time Sam and Surrender-Not are trying to solve a series of murders that seem to be connected, but they don't have all the pieces. Some of the secondary stories move forward a little, but still have a long way to go. The narrator changed from the first 2 books and the narration leave alot to be desired.

Good story/bad narrator

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The story is solid, and keeps your attention. Someone called this a postcolonial mystery series -- I don't think they knew what postcoloniality is, as this isn't it. The author does make a point of presenting a more balanced point, even pro-South Asian point of view, which is necessary.

The audio performer, however, is poorly chosen. Most significantly, he mispronounces all the words from Hindi, Bangla, etc. That would perhaps be fine if only the main character were speaking -- the main character, a British police officer working in Colonial India, might mispronounce the words -- but not the various Indians who speak. It's really off-putting if you know how those words should be pronounced.

The accent the performer has chosen for Captain Windham also seems off, given the time and place, and his social position.

Good story, terrible performance

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Excellent. Starts a bit slower than the previous two books in the series, but picks up steam and gravitas as it goes. A fine effort, in some ways a better and more mature story than the earlier two outings. Different narrator, but in practice just as good as the much liked earlier one. Overall a great series.

Christmas 1921

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The narrator on this book did a fine job but he lacked the emotional depth as the narrator of the first two books. It really makes it hard to follow the story/characters when a new person is the narrator.

Why change narrators 😢

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After listening to Malk narrate the first two books TO PERFECTION, I just can’t get my head around Simon’s reading. Malk William’s accents were perfect. His inflections caught the humor of the author exactly as I feel he intended. The tone of cynicism combined with hopefulness of the main character was well conveyed. Please, if Audible gives us more of this series, let Malk Williams narrate.

Malk Williams set the bar.

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These books about Sam Windham and Surrendernot(sp?) are so much fun to listen to. I am so enjoying them. I have listened to them one after another and am looking forward to the 4th book. It is a great historical novel as well as a good who dunnit!

What a Great Series!

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Smoke and Ashes is another creative but believable reimagining of India and Indian politics in the years immediately after World War I. Sam continues to perform top-notch detective work while fighting his opium addiction, while his partner, Surrender Not Banerjee, struggles to reconcile his deep loyalty to the British police force in Calcutta with his family’s devotion to Gandhi’s non-violent campaign for Indian independence. Mukherjee skillfully intertwines real events and personalities in Indian history with the lives of his fictional cast of characters. My only complaint about Smoke and Ashes is that all of Sam’s superior officers are drawn as so completely incompetent that they invariably have to turn to Sam for suggestions of what to do next in harrowing situations. It is not credible that both the head of military intelligence and the head of the police force would be so utterly clueless at several steps along the way about how to protect the Prince of Wales from a threatened attack. Unfortunately the storyline often depends on their ineptitude and Wyndham’s brilliance (which often looks like repeated insubordination) - a few too many times in my view. It seems to me that this is too easy a plot device for a good writer to rely on.

Another solid entry in the series, with one exception

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I am already very fond of these characters, especially Surrender-not, but also the flawed Sam. The history of the Raj period is fascinating and enraging. But Mukherjee presents it in a digestible way, and with important insight. I look forward to the next in the series.

Love this series!

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