The Spy, by Ajay Chowdhury.
Here’s #4 in Ajay Chowdhury’s
enormously entertaining series starring Kamil Rahman, disgraced Kolkota
Detective, London waiter/cook/London Detective, and in this story, MI5 Spy as
he tries to dismantle and foil a heinous plot engineered by rebellious Muslims
to cause death and destruction during a visit to London by the corrupt Hindu
Prime Minister.
Kamil is Muslim but not fanatically
so until Imam Maroor, the imam of his local Mosque is kidnapped with another of
his congregation, someone who is having second thoughts about helping the
rebels manufacture an explosive device.
The imam is Kamil’s friend and mentor and has helped him immeasurably
since his arrival in London; Kamil
cannot let the London Police proceed at snail speed in their investigations,
even though one of their own, Tahir, is doing his best to keep the kidnapping
in the forefront of their investigation – but everything ramps up when a burnt body is found with the
imam’s phone not far away.
Kamil’s sorrow and and anger are
boundless: to ruthlessly kill such a
good and saintly man is a crime that he will avenge - by fair means or foul. His initial refusal to be recruited to MI5 is
overturned: he will find the imam’s
killers by every means at his disposal.
There will be no escape for any of them.
Mr Chowdhury makes some very salient
points about fanaticism, Muslim, Hindu and otherwise: no-one gets off lightly or without a
weighing-up of blame or responsibility, and his assessment of Kashmir, fought
over like a bone by China, Pakistan and India is masterly. Which is when there is a much-needed change
in plot direction: Tandoori Knights, the
restaurant that has saved Kamil’s sanity on many an occasion is still
flourishing, even more so because Anjoli, Kamil’s heart’s desire, has hired a
new chef – baldheaded, tattooed and musclebound, whose new menu is too
atmospheric and grandiose to be true – but people are flocking in. And Anjoli seems to be attracted to him as
well. He calls himself Chanson but Kamil
reckons he’s a Chancer. And when has he
ever been wrong?
Mr Chowdhury has done it again –
produced yet another feverishly fast-paced thriller, efficiently plotted and
with the usual dazzling array of minor characters: bring on #5!
FIVE STARS.