A decade ago Anglo-Indian author Abir Mukherjee broke into a second career as a crime novelist after 20 years working as an accountant. His first effort, A Rising Man, appeared in 2016. An historical detective novel featuring a pair of Calcutta cops shortly after World War I, it won a coveted literary award soon after its publication. And it launched the now-six-book series of Wyndham and Banerjee mysteries that put him on readers’ radar. Now, with the release of The Pinnacle, a crime thriller set in contemporary Mumbai, Mukherjee shows his mettle with a gripping thriller. It’s a story that will grab your attention from the first page and never let go.
You won’t forget these characters
George Abercrombie is a has-been Hollywood heart-throb. He lives in a penthouse on the 68th floor of The Pinnacle, Mumbai’s most luxurious apartment bloc, with his much younger wife, Sweety Sahota. She’s the glamorous queen of Bollywood, adored by 1.4 billion Indians. They married when she was beginning her rise to stardom and he was on the top in Hollywood.
Two of their servants at The Pinnacle play pivotal roles in George and Sweety’s story. Gemma, his former personal assistant and now hers. Amit, the untrustworthy young village man who now serves him in the same role, though badly.
Gemma is engaged in a love affair with another Pinnacle resident, Ashok K., “Mr. Mumbai,” the Honourable Minister for Civic Affairs from the right-wing Hindu nationalist New Bharat Party. And Amit is under the thumb of the powerful gangland boss, Fat Moeez Darzi.
Now two things happen to shake up all their lives.
After awakening with a thunderous hangover after a night on the couch, George finds Sweety stabbed to death in her bed.
And someone sends Gemma a video of her having sex with Ashok. He threatens to release it publicly, destroying her life and his career, unless she steals and hands over Sweety’s laptop.
And, to complicate matters, Detective Inspector Vikram Gill of the Mumbai police suspects both George and Amit of the murder. Of course, both these events, and all these people, are connected. And it all plays out in sensational stories online and in the Indian media. But the fun lies in the long, deliciously complicated path we wend through hidden facts until the truth comes out in the end.
The Pinnacle by Abir Mukherjee (2026) 423 pages ★★★★★
A city of 25 million riven by massive inequality
On world rankings of income inequality by the United Nations, India falls squarely in the middle. But you wouldn’t know that on a visit to Mumbai today. In neighborhoods such as Altamount Road (“billionaire’s row”) and Malabar Hill in South Mumbai, many of the city’s 95 billionaires maintain homes. Often, those homes lie on streets surrounded by hovels that house desperate migrants from India’s impoverished villages engaged in an often futile search for work.
Abir Mukherjee’s novel brings this contrast to light. In The Pinnacle, he portrays a city in thrall to the magic of Bollywood and the ceaseless search for wealth. Among the privileged few who live in the city’s high-security towers and mansions, the wealth they possess is never enough. Meanwhile, for the bedraggled millions who fight tooth-and-nail for the pennies they will receive as servants, “wealth” is a secure position that will feed a family and put a solid roof over their heads. Even those who have risen into the city’s growing middle class sometimes only manage to keep their heads above water by accepting bribes. For corruption reigns from top to bottom.
About the author
Abir Mukherjee wrote the widely acclaimed Wyndham and Banerjee series of historical detective novels set in Raj-era Calcutta (now Kolkata). His parents moved from there to the United Kingdom before he was born in 1974. Mukherjee grew up in Scotland and now lives in Surrey, England with his wife Sonal and two sons. He worked as an accountant for 20 years before writing his first novel in his series in 2013. (It was published in 2016.)
For related reading
I’m reviewing all the novels in the author’s detective series. For links to the books, see The Wyndham and Banerjee historical detective novels set in colonial India.
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- The best Indian detective novels
- Good books about India, past and present
- The best mystery series set in Asia
- 30 outstanding detective series from around the world
- The 8 best historical mystery series
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