M J Carter - The Strangler Vine

This is a wonderful book and very accomplished for a debut. It really is my kind of book as it is set in India in 1837.

It is beautifully written and very atmospheric. I particularly liked the pairing of the embittered old hand with the young and naive young officer . I also liked the fact that there was no 'massaging' of the  language and opinions of the time, as it is all the more shocking to hear it in context.
A young officer is commissioned to accompany a hastily resigned up East Indian Officer as his guide to find a celebrated poet. Throw in treachorous Indian Princes, Thuggees, and suspicious East India Company colleagues, of and a tiger hunt and you have all the makings of a perfect thriller.
The plot is exciting and finely paced. I was up into the small hours reading the last few chapters. Do they escape are they rewarded, well that would only be spoilers.