Book
The Shadows of Men
First published 2021
Calcutta, 1923. The murder of a prominent Hindu theologian threatens to ignite communal violence in a city already under intense political strain. Surendranath Banerjee is pulled into a dangerous surveillance assignment and soon finds himself accused of murder and arson, forcing him to flee while Sam Wyndham tries to establish what really happened. Their search takes them beyond Calcutta to Bombay and into networks of politics, religion, money and influence where someone appears determined to turn sectarian tension into a weapon.
The novel is told from both Wyndham’s and Banerjee’s perspectives, making the unequal realities of the Imperial Police impossible to ignore. Gandhi is in prison after the suspension of the Non-Cooperation Movement, nationalist politics are reorganising, and British rule remains powerful but increasingly defensive. Against that background, Banerjee’s education and rank offer little protection from institutional racism or political expediency. The case tests the partnership more severely than any earlier investigation and broadens the series from anti-colonial conflict to the religious and social divisions that also shaped India’s politics in the 1920s.
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