A Necessary Evil

By: Abir Mukherjee

Narrated by: Malk Williams

Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

India, 1920. Captain Wyndham and Sergeant Banerjee of the Calcutta Police Force investigate the dramatic assassination of a Maharajah's son, in the sequel to A Rising Man.

The fabulously wealthy kingdom of Sambalpore is home to tigers, elephants, diamond mines, and the beautiful Palace of the Sun. But when the heir to the throne is assassinated in the presence of Captain Sam Wyndham and Sergeant "Surrender-Not" Banerjee, they discover a kingdom riven with suppressed conflict. Prince Adhir was a modernizer whose attitudes - and romantic relationships - may have upset the more religious elements of his country, while his brother - now in line to the throne - appears to be a feckless playboy.

As Wyndham and Banerjee desperately try to unravel the mystery behind the assassination, they become entangled in a dangerous world where those in power live by their own rules - and those who cross their paths pay with their lives. They must find a murderer, before the murderer finds them....

©2018 Abir Mukherjee (P)2018 Audible, Inc.

Great performance and a compelling story.

May add more later, but I am really enjoying this series. It combines great mysteries with wonderful characters and interesting history.

Story is good, voice-over not so much

A good second story: entertaining and interesting.

The voiceover actor mangles words from Bangla and Hindi, which is distracting and annoying. Were I the author, I would be upset that the company that recorded the book didn't either find someone who could pronounce the words correctly, or prep the actor they chose.

Extremely captivating read (or listen!)

My husband turned me on to these books. He loves spy and crime novels and I like historical novels. This is a combination of the two and so well written. I found myself dwelling on the characters and possible outcome while I was busy doing other things. Thank you to the author for first rate entertainment!

Fantastic! But no Book #3 for me thru Audible.

Love this series so far! However, I just learned they changed narrators for the third book so I will not be buying it from Audible. I’m really disappointed because the narrator (Malk Williams) for books 1 and 2 was excellent in general but also provided perfectly subtle accents and gender adaptations that made the listening smooth and musical. I highly recommend books 1 & 2 with Malk Williams!!!

Great read, excellent narrator

So many mysteries seem to try to outdo each other with other with long descriptions of gore rather than good characters, atmosphere & plot. Abir Mukhergee tells a great tale with fun and a wonderful sleuth Sam Wyndham. His hero Philip Kerr would be proud.

Political Intrigue

Captain Sam Wyndham continues to seek the truth in the face of corruption and political intrigue. This time Sam is faced with investigating a murder of a Prince. A Necessary Evil is a good book. A mystery set in India in the face of British Colonialism during the 1920s. The writing of Abir Mukherjee wonderfully describes India and the culture at that time. I did not enjoy this novel as much as I enjoyed A Rising Man, but it was still a good book.

I am loving this series

I loved the first book and the second one is just as good. I am certainly going to read the next installment. This book is very atmospheric, has great plot and plot twists. Highly recommended

Not quite as good as 1st in series but still good

Enjoyed the narration and overall plot. Surprising turns lead to the conclusion. Not easy to guess the ending.

Second best but very good

I was really looking forward to this second book by Mukherjee, I loved the first, crime detection set in colonial India, good suspense and lots of information/irony about the colonial setting. The first set up the unlikely but growing rapport between an ex-WWI Englishman and his younger Indian subordinate. This one does not keep up with the character development of the latter, a flaw for me, but again offers a rich historical setting with good suspense.

What's not to like?

Maharajas, palaces, diamond mines, purdah, eunuchs, tiger hunts, concubines, execution by elephant: what's not to like? Book two in the Sam Wyndham series is a significant improvement over book 1 A Rising Man (reviewed earlier). If a Rising Man was a warm up exercise, A Necessary Evil is a much more readable (listenable) work. The characters are more comfortable, Sam's opium addiction makes a bit more sense, Surrendernot, Sam's Cambridge educated side kick, is more assertive. But the beautiful Anglo-Indian Annie Grant is even more elusive than in the first book. Continuing my infatuation with the British Raj we travel to a troubled principality following the assassination of the crown prince. His murder takes place right in front of Sam and Surrendernot so they have a vested interest in finding the motive for the killing. I've always felt that "setting" is one of the key elements in writing crime fiction. The story is set in Sambalpur, an actual district of India, but in the era of our story no longer actually ruled by a Maharajah. The fictional Maharajah is on his death bed, not surprising after his super human effort of fathering hundreds of children by hundreds of concubines. With his three actual wives his has three sons—a good one (assassinated), a bad one (in danger of assassination) and an infant. As it develops even though the wives and concubines are isolated in the harem they seem to know what is going on in the country and are key to unraveling the mystery. All that police procedural stuff is not as important to me as the setting which Mukherjee does a good job of describing. The tiger hunt, the execution, the evocation of the weather all make this a deeper, richer story. Much more entertaining that book one. Looking forward to book three.