Beyond Reasonable Doubt: Investigating Crime in the Raj | A True Crime Investigation in British India

Beyond reasonable doubt is a book that is in its own league. While the genre of this book has many options, the author's approach to writing is what sets it apart. One, they are not fiction but deeply researched crime investigations from the past. As reality is always stranger than fiction, they feel real even when the twists in these stories may seem fantastical. Two, it has been written from an investigating officer's point of view. It feels like playing a first person video game to solve crimes where you are a real life homicide detective. It avoids the labyrinthian details that are typical of airport fictions and focuses on what's relevant to each case. It devotes time on motives and not just clues. Three, it's not one story but a set of cases that are all fit to inspire their own movies or a web series. I do hope to see Salman Curtis on screen. Lastly, author must be commended for a superlative writing as his first book.

A good book on crime in colonial India, but I realised from the introduction itself that the curiously named 'Salman Curtis' had to be a fictional character. I do research on and have an extensive library of books on colonial crime and found that 'Salman' seems to be moulded on C.E. Gouldsbury from his book 'Life in the Indian Police' first published in 1912. The description of the telegram received by Salman, the payment of 150 pounds by his bankers, the boy dressed in blue and gold who greets him in Calcutta etc are all to be found in Gouldsbury's book. The author seems to have used Gouldsbury as a model for Salman and woven his narrative around him. This does not however detract from the substance of the book. Some of the stories in the book are also to be found in 'Indian Village Crimes' by Sir Ceil Walsh published in 1929. 'The Confession, The Murder of the Watchdog, The Sacrifice of a Child, The Mystery of the Plough, The Murder of the Mahant' are all mentioned in Walsh's book which is rare and out of print. The author has simplified and explained the plots in an easy and readable style. I found the chapter 'Neighbour's Envy' interesting as it highlights the peculiar problems faced by the colonial police in investigations when crimes were committed in native states. In this story however, the author has not said whether the crime was actually solved and the perpetrators arrested but goes on to show how the policeman investigating the crime was charged with rape.The editing could have been tighter and the proof-reading should have been better.

I liked this book. Gripping from page one. People who are interested in British raj and its prevailing law system in India and Indian history will be interested in reading this book.Readers can gain knowledge of what it was like to live in the era. One of the things that were especially interesting was that there was a law principle called Beyond Reasonable Doubts. How this law had been being exploited limitlessly by and for Britisher. It broke Indian values to the core.These stories do not conclude and finish in "they lived happily ever after" mode but then it throws numerous fuzzy questions in our mind to ponder and leave us with interpretation. Quite compelling.This book was very well written by Ranjit Mishra. This book is suitable for Indians, lawmakers and law practitioners. More books should come in this series. Being a son of a lawyer, I felt its crux and discussed it with my father too.Keep up the good work and all the best!!!

Beyond Reasonable Doubt by Ranjit Mishra is a crime thriller based book. This book is effectively written to interest the students about the criminalogy or to illustrate the difficulties of police investigation and whole course of criminal administration in India.•••This book is a compedium of crimes from the British period in India that are captured from the eyes of Salman Curtis , an Anglo Indian who has been appointed in the police forces in Calcutta. Salman learns a lot as he goes from one posting to the other and documents the cases in his journal . The cases are presented with few exceptions have been either investigated by him or narrated by him .•••The book is very exciting to read and it is a beginner friendly book as the language used is lucid. The author has tried to write something interesting by writing more than one story to not bore the readers with just one whole read.

Author makes the readers feel a part and parcel of the crime investigation. The crime investigation stories neither breach the logical and scientific temper nor dilute the thrill of reading at any point.It's sheer acumen of the author which has generated such a tight plot....It's a timeless classic by the author in uniform...

Many stories have abrupt endings and could have been given a better closure. And at places the author is too verbose and repeats himself

"Beyond Reasonable Doubt" is a collection of 12 crime stories set in the 19th century. The book is about an Anglo-Indian police officer Salman Curtis, who gets posted from the streets of London to Kolkata. He witnesses some of the most horrific crimes, detailing the investigative techniques that lead him to find the culprit. The depth with which the crime scenes are described in the chapters is commendable. The language used in the book is simple and lucid.What makes this book different from other crime books is that all the stories in this book are about crimes that happened when there were no techniques and it is very difficult to catch the culprit. No mobile phone has been used by criminals or police. The police used to wait a long time for any kind of report, the transport was also so slow that the criminal got a fair time to escape. In today's era, we cannot even imagine how the police would have investigated at that time. These are some of the points that make it a unique read.While reading this book I was constantly thinking about how difficult it was to investigate crime in that non-technological age.If you are a crime thriller lover and want to read something different, then you can definitely pick up this book.

Nothing much has changed in the manner of working of Indian police since it's days of British Raj .

Awesome book!