Endlessly entertaining ... The roller-coaster ride of a plot builds to an undeniably shocking conclusion

Ingenious ... suspenseful and cleverly plotted

A tale set at the very edge of our knowledge ... I loved it

An exciting thriller that is full of surprises and captures the intense atmosphere of the White House. I thoroughly enjoyed it

James Crumley, a critically acclaimed crime novelist whose drug-infused, alcohol-soaked, profanity-laced, breathtakingly violent books swept the hard-boiled detective from the Raymond Chandler era into an amoral, utterly dissolute, apocalyptic post-Vietnam universe

Crumley is the singular reason that a lot of today’s forty-something writers headed straight into crime fiction

Crumley is a brilliant purveyor of dialogue and a master of melancholy loneliness.

Impressive . . .Gardner's debut begins at speed and scarcely draws breath thereafter.

Few thriller debuts possess the confidence and verve of Frank Gardner's CRISIS . . . a book of exhilarating panache.

A seriously compulsive page turner.

Combines insider knowledge with heart-in-mouth excitement.

Action-packed . . . the book’s title scarcely does justice to such a thrilling read.

Fast moving.

Irresistible . . . smart, authentic and always entertaining . . . high-voltage storytelling at its best and worthy of Frederick Forsyth or John le Carre.

Gardner obviously has an up-to-the-minute understanding of contemporary warfare and he is also a very good writer. This is a thrilling adventure.

Gardner is a dab hand at ratcheting up the tension . . . a must read.

A compelling read.

A journey into the dark underbelly of the British Raj.

A promising start to Mukherjee’s atmospheric new historical crime series.

Enjoyable tale… Agreeably witty and sharply written, this is an evocative portrait of a multifaceted Calcutta.

This guy is a real find… Mixes family history with a good helping of imagination.

An assured novel: well researched and vivid, with a strong plotline, delivered with verve and some appealing wry humour.

A vivid sense of history and locale

Meticulously researched and delivered in clear, lucid and intelligent prose, Mukherjee is a fantastic addition to the stable of international crime writers, whose books effortlessly cross boundaries and bind readers in a community of excellence and enjoyment.

Vividly described, full of humour and humanity, it's a wonderful picture of that time and world, as well as being a perfect murder mystery novel.

Bursting with lively historical details about post-World War I India, this is a stirring and entertaining mystery

This brilliant mingling of real history and fictional invention kicks off a series that does for the Raj what Philip Kerr did for the Reich