The Prince and the Poisoner

'Dan Morrison has unearthed a fabulous true-crime story and embedded it within a fascinating work of micro history. David Grann has competition.' ROBERT TWIGGER, author of Walking the Great North Line A crowded train platform. A painful jolt to the arm. A mysterious fever. And a fortune in the balance. Welcome to a Calcutta murder so diabolical in planning, modern in conception, and cold in execution that it made headlines from London to Sydney to New York. In The Prince and the Poisoner, Dan Morrison unravels the gruesome tale of two warring brothers, set amidst the febrile atmosphere of Jazz Age India. It is the story of a city and an empire on the cusp of cataclysmic change, capturing a moment when centuries-old assumptions and expressions of power become forever altered for Indians and Englishmen alike. Moving at the pace of a thriller, Morrison's investigation of a riveting fratricide among India's rural aristocracy pulls the reader on a journey from Calcutta to Bombay, through feudal estates, viceregal balls, police interrogation cells and colonial courtrooms - a world of movies, dancing, protest and revolutionary violence.

Dan Morrison is a regular contributor to The New York Times, Guardian, BBC News and the San Francisco Chronicle. He is the author of The Black Nile (Viking US, 2010), an account of his voyage from Lake Victoria to Rosetta, through Uganda, Sudan and Egypt. Having lived in India for five years, he currently splits his time between his native Brooklyn, Ireland and Chennai.