Grant Sutherland

I finished this book and while it wasn't a bad read I didn't care that the main characters lived or died. I had a pretty good idea that our main character Alistair Douglas lived, cause he occasionally mentioned stuff that happened afterwards, but honestly I didn't feel that he was in peril or that I cared about him or other characters mentioned in the story.

It should have kept me reading, should have kept me excited, this was the period of the India Company, there were battles, wars, epsionage, but I just felt meh about it all and wanted it to be over. I nearly abandoned it a few times, it actually took me several weeks of reading a few chapters at a time to actually finish it. I might read another book in this series, possibly by accident, but I have no real urge to hunt them up.

Not a terrible read, but not something I enjoyed per say… (mais)

‘The Cobras of Calcutta’ is the first in an intended series of novels called ‘The Decipherer’s Chronicles’ charting the spy adventures of our hero, Alistair Douglas. Set in India in the mid-18th century - the time of Clive and Warren Hastings, both of whom appear in the book - it covers the time when both England and France are jostling for power in the region and facing pressure and revolt from the indigenous rulers.

I am really not sure where this book intended to take me and I certainly feel swindled of my expectations of excitement. Most of the book is not set in Calcutta and I recall no mention of cobras - secret society ones, metaphorical ones or actual ones. The blurb speaks of ‘...a married woman he adores...’, but the only possible candidate, his boss’s wife, is treated with respect and argely ignored; if this is adoration, I’ll take a slap with a wet fish any day. Spying in this story seems to consist of transporting messages writen in code, most of which we never get to see; intrigue there is, but it all happens off stage, in the mind of Alistar’s boss, or in high-powered meetings that Alistair is not invited to.

What we do get a lot of is Alistair volunteering to take part in every battle and skirmish going. They are all ghastly and they all sound the same.

The premise here is good and the location suitably exotic and exciting. The execution is poor. Kipling’s Kim need not look over his shoulder at this Alistair.… (mais)