The Detective by Ajay Chowdhury

“If a tech company is not trying to sell you a product, you are the product they are selling.” The setting of this tale is up to the minute, and like other intelligent mysteries, it comments on contemporary society. Like Herron’s latest novel, this one too concerns how the evolving possibilities offered by information technology can be used for malicious purposes.

In this third volume of a delightful series, former Calcutta policeman Kamil has left behind his struggles as cook and waiter at an Indian restaurant in Brick Lane to become a detective with the Met.

Frustrated when Anjoli, his friend, landlady, and former employer, continues to keep him at a distance, he is distracted by the arrival of his ex-girlfriend from Calcutta. When Maliha arrives in London for a two-year assignment for Amnesty International, he finds himself once more drawn to her. But surely, thinks the reader, this woman of “flawless skin, glossy hair and all her illusions” is not the right match for Kamil. He is much better suited to Anjoli, with her detective skills, persistence, and sassy T shirt slogans.

When human bones are found in a construction site, it is Anjoli who uncovers the story of a century-old murder based on greed and ethnic hatred, Back then Brick Lane was Jewish, and the current mosque a synagogue. Plus ca change. Today the Met must has to solve killings in a tech company selling secret software and run by Israelis and Palestinians. The tale is beautifully handled, and the author doles out just enough about the love triangle to make us eager to read the next book to find out how it is resolved.