50 Must-Read 50 Beta
← The Must-Read 50
Cover of Smoke and Ashes by Abir MukherjeeSmoke and Ashes
Modern · Fiction, Mystery, Adventure

Smoke and Ashes

by Abir Mukherjee
2018 · 352 pages · Fiction
68.1Must-Read
Score Modern
Reserve shelf
≈ 9 hours to read · about 3 weeks at 30 minutes a day

By the numbers

68.1Must-Read Score
  • Readers73 out of 100 · counts 42%
  • Critics21 out of 100 · counts 34% (its stronger lane)
  • Bestseller0 out of 100 · counts 14%
  • Buzz14 out of 100 · counts 10%

Critics and Bestseller are two ways to earn a place: a book's stronger one counts more. Buzz rewards recent bestseller weeks and prizes, so older books start at zero. The parts combine into the Must-Read Score, shown on a scale where the best book we found scores 99 and the last book to make the ranking scores 50.

On our reserve shelf: it doesn't have enough readers yet for us to rank it alongside the Must-Read 50 pool. We check again every month, and it can still turn up in your 50 once you've read most of our ranked books.

Why it made the list

Shortlisted
Edgar Award finalist (2020)

Reads as

Adventurous, Gripping

How we rank

Already read it? Upload your Goodreads or StoryGraph history and get the 50 best books you haven't read, tuned to your taste.Get my 50

More by Abir Mukherjee

Cover of A Rising Man by Abir MukherjeeA Rising Man
A Rising ManAbir Mukherjee

If you like this, read next

Cover of Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia OwensWhere the Crawdads Sing
Where the Crawdads SingDelia Owens
Cover of Cryptonomicon by Neal StephensonCryptonomicon
CryptonomiconNeal Stephenson
Cover of A Column of Fire by Ken FollettA Column of Fire
A Column of FireKen Follett
Cover of The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz ZafónThe Shadow of the Wind
The Shadow of the WindCarlos Ruiz Zafón
Cover of A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon JamesA Brief History of Seven Killings
A Brief History of Seven KillingsMarlon James
Cover of The Pillars of the Earth by Ken FollettThe Pillars of the Earth
The Pillars of the EarthKen Follett

Explore the best-of lists

All 47 best-of lists →
Mysteries and thrillersTop 25 · 623 rankedModern booksTop 25 · 1,647 rankedBooks of the 2010sTop 25 · 751 rankedFantasy booksTop 25 · 504 rankedLiterary novelsTop 25 · 325 rankedPulitzer Prize-winning novelsTop 25 · 63 rankedMemoirs and biographiesTop 25 · 290 rankedScience fiction booksTop 25 · 333 ranked