The pleasures of Crumley's writing has always been in the characters, dialogue and incidental delights

It's the journey, with all its wild, wicked, sweet, painful, courageous, outrageous and obscene encounters - which must somehow include those between man and duck - that will stay with the reader after the blood dries'

The pleasures of a James Crumley novel derive mostly from the zing of its characters, the bite of its epigrams, and a restless, almost manic vitality - prose on amphetamines

[A] terrific first novel...Mukherjee’s descriptions of Calcutta under the Raj are vivid, while Wyndham’s position as a newcomer with fresh eyes works brilliantly

Enthralling... The investigation sends Wyndham and his Bengali assistant on a whirlwind circuit of the city

Evocative, intricate, beautifully written. A must read

A lip-smacking and highly entertaining mystery, set in a Calcutta so convincingly evoked that readers will find sweat bursting from their foreheads

This vivid murder mystery moves at breakneck speeds

An intoxicating debut… The most engaging detective since…James Runcie’s Grantchester series: utterly captivating

A Rising Man is an exceptionally good, and original, historical crime novel...Roll on book two.

Abir Mukherjee’s A Rising Man is a whodunit set in the social and political tinderbox of 1919 Calcutta – a thought-provoking rollercoaster

One of the most exciting debut novels I've read in years

Witty, atmospheric.

Colourful, eloquent, witty, unputdownable. And here's the best bit: this is the first in an unmissable new series that is clearly destined to join the pantheon of intelligent historical crime fiction. Jump on the wagon now

[An] atmospheric period thriller from [a] promising debut author

A thoroughly engaging new detective... A Rising Man kept me awake, racing to the finish… This is a Calcutta of smart cantonments and deep corruption, vividly brought to life, the politics and the people skewered with sharp dialogue and a brilliant sense of period

A historical thriller of the highest calibre; evocative and pleasingly complex, shot through with the driest of wit, it marks Mukherjee out as an author of great style and ambition

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