As Captain Rodney Savage of the 13th Rifles celebrates the start of 1857 in the isolated town of Bhowani there is unrest stirring in the neighbouring state of Kishanpur. Captain Savage is ordered to Kishanpur to protect the state’s ruler and her young son. As the tension develops into violence and the British struggle to identify who is loyal to them the full horror of the Indian Mutiny emerges. One of the great novels of India, Nightrunners of Bengal combines John Master’s mastery of story-telling with an intuitive sense of history.