The Spy by Ajay Chowdhury

Ajay Chowdhury’s Kamil Rahman series is only four books old but has managed to constantly reinvent itself. The first book in the series The Waiter was a hard edged but also in some ways cosy crime story in which a disgraced Kolkata detective working in his family’s London restaurant helps solve a crime. By book 3, The Detective, Rahman found himself in the British police force and delivered an interesting but slightly underwhelming procedural. With The Spy, Chowdhury reinvents his premise again, having Rahman go undercover for MI5, with much better effect.

When The Spy opens, Rahman is doing penance in the police force for the unorthodox way he dealt with the crimes in The Detective. He is approached by his Imam, who believes that one of his parishioners has fallen in with Islamic extremists. Soon the Imam and is missing and Rahman is approached by MI5 to go undercover at a local mosque to try and find out what has happened to the Imam and uncover the plot. In order to do so Rahman has to be drummed out of the police force (purportedly for his previous sins). Meanwhile his on-again, off-again girlfriend Anjoli, finds herself trying to help a couple whose son has been kidnapped.

The Spy is another change of pace for Chowdhury and his characters. More thriller than whodunnit or procedural complete with secret identifies, kidnapping, torture and more than one ticking clock. But baked into this new formula are the same issues Rahman has been dealing with since book one – racism and Islamaphobia in both Inda and the UK, and the use of these in the service of greed and power. In The Spy Chowdhury also explores the siren song of fundamentalism, and how good ethical people can be slowly turned to do things that might not otherwise contemplate. But as always, the focus is on the central characters of Rahman and Anjoli and their relationship, complicated further by the presence of Rahman’s ex-fiancé Mahlina in London.

For a series that started strongly and then dipped a little, The Spy feels like a return to form. It is tense, deals with real world issues, and remains anchored around two engaging characters. And by Chowdhury has given himself room to pivot again should Rahman and Anjoli return for a fifth time.

The Spy by Ajay Chowdhury

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8.0/10