The Thing About Thugs

In his American debut—a Victorian mystery pastiche—Khair is as comfortable rendering late-1830s London as he is Phansa, “a wretched little town” in India, some hundred years later. The focus is Amir Ali, ostensibly a reformed member of the fearsome Indian “cult of Thugee” living in 19th-century London, and subject of Capt. William T. Meadows’s phrenological study, Notes on a Thug: Character and Circumstances. Alternating between Notes on a Thug—which comprises Amir’s confabulated depravities—and letters from Amir to his beloved, Jenny, the unnamed narrator tells the story based on snippets found in his grandfather’s library in Phansa. When a series of brutal beheadings scandalizes London, suspicion quickly falls on the well-known “thug.” Relying on his own wits and a group of fellow Indians, Amir must prove his innocence and bring the real perpetrators to justice. Although Khair shows a deft hand with a wide variety of genres, the mystery is finally overwhelmed by the overt postcolonial critique, and the predictable story sags under its weight. Agent: Matt Bialer, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. (July)