The Best Book I Read This Month: A Necessary Evil by Abir Mukherjee

The best book I read this month is A Necessary Evil, the second book in Abir Mukherjee’s Wyndham and Banerjee series. The series follows opium-addicted WW1 veteran Sam Wyndham and Sergeant “Surrender Not” Banerjee as they solve murder mysteries in 1920s India.

What struck me the most in the first book in the series was its vivid descriptions. As a reader, I could almost feel the oppressive humidity of the Calcutta summer. The descriptions in this book are just as vivid, although the setting is different. In A Necessary Evil, monsoon season has reached India, and Wyndham and Banerjee are sent to one of India’s independent kingdoms to investigate the assassination of a prince. This time, the description that stuck with me is one that churned my stomach: Mukherjee’s description of an execution. It’s a short scene in the book, but holy cow, it was a powerful one.

It was also gratifying to see Mukherjee’s portrayal of Wyndham’s opium addiction. In the first book, Wyndham claimed to have his addiction managed, but here, we see that he’s getting worse. The time between hits is getting shorter. He’s almost constantly craving the next one. Wyndham is no static character. He’s clearly going to change—and hopefully, grow—as the series goes on.

I hope the same is true of Sgt. Banerjee, who I find endearing but not quite as developed a character as Wyndham. I look forward to reading the next installment of their adventures.

wish you a Halloween full of treats and no tricks.

The Best Book I Read This Month: A Dangerous Crossing by Ausma Zehanat Khan

The best book I read this month was A Dangerous Crossing, an Esa Khattak mystery by Ausma Zehanat Khan. This isn’t the first time Khan’s series has appeared in this blog series. The previous installment in the series—Among the Ruins—was also a Best Book I Read.

This episode of the series focused on the Mediterranean refugee crisis and the Syrian civil war, as Esa Khattak and his partner, Rachel Getty, are sent to Greece to locate a missing aid worker—who happens to be a childhood friend of Khattak’s. Khattak and Getty are overcome by what they find in the camps in the Greek islands, and they soon find themselves trying to solve two mysteries: the missing aid worker and a missing Syrian refugee.

The story is gripping and harrowing, with well-plotted twists and turns. The characters of Khattak and Getty are as engaging and sympathetic as always. There are a couple of romantic subplots in the book, one of which works and one of which didn’t (for me). The one that works is one that has been hinted at in earlier installments in the series. With the foundation that’s been laid, the development of the romance here made sense. It felt organic. The other one seems to have come out of the blue. While the characters do have a history, explained in previous books, the romantic development here felt rushed and forced, in a way. I felt blindsided and confused by it. But these subplots are minor and do not overshadow the tension and stakes of the larger missing person mysteries.

The next book in the series, A Deadly Divide, came out earlier this year. Don’t be surprised if I end up writing that one up too!

The Best Book I Read This Month: Description by Monica Wood

The best book I read this month was a writing craft book called Description. Don’t let the title fool you, though—the book is about more than writing descriptions. It talks about point-of-view and dialogue and plot and story. At 168 pages, it is one of the richest craft books I’ve ever read.

Written by Monica Wood, Description is an old book. Published in 1995 by Writer’s Digest Books, it’s now out of print and I had a devil of a time finding it. I’m glad I did, though. The book is a master-class in the importance of word choice in every aspect of the writer’s craft: description, character, setting, point of view, story, and narrative. My highlighter got quite a workout.

So many writing books are either pompous (“To be a real writer, you must do XYZ”) or overly justified (“It’s important that you do this or no one will read your work—or something equally catastrophic.”) Wood’s Description is neither. It is concise and direct. It gives writers the power of choice and provides examples of each type of choice. For example, “Show, Don’t Tell,” Wood cautions, is a common but frequently misunderstood piece of writing advice. She says it’s not about always showing and never telling, but rather knowing when it’s better to show and when it’s better to tell.

Each chapter concludes with a summary of the chapter’s main points, which will prove helpful when I need to refer back to it during my revision passes. It also includes a handy list of additional tips and tricks in the back—something that could easily be turned into a revision checklist.

I have a strong suspicion that I’m going to be coming back to this book again and again as I write and revise from here on out.