Nightrunners of Bengal - Relations With Other Books in The Series

Relations With Other Books in The Series

The Deceivers is about Rodney's father, William, who suppresses the Thugee. William's butler, Sher Dil, also appears in Nightrunners of Bengal, now an old man, and working for Rodney. Piroo, an ex-Thug who worked as part of William's band in The Deceivers, and revered William as a great leader, also appears in this book.

Rodney Savage appears as a middle-aged colonel in The Lotus and the Wind and in Far, Far the Mountain Peak as an elderly retired general. He also makes a final appearance in The Ravi Lancers as a very old but still vivid man in 1915, who meets his younger relative, one of that book's main two protagonists, and speaks with concern and criticism on the conduct of the First World War.

Robin Savage, Rodney's son, features in The Lotus and the Wind, a novel about the Great Game.

Bhowani Junction, set in 1946-47, seems clearly intended as a counterpoint to the present book, and the two are more closely related to each other than to the other books of the Savage series. The later book also takes place in the fictional Bhowani and its environs, and specific locations are seen again changed by the passage of the century (for example, the metalled road which plays a significant part in Nightrunners has been replaced by the railway which plays an important role in Junction). Moreover, one of the later book's protagonists is also called Rodney Savage (the great-grandson of the central character of Nightrunners) and in many ways seems the same character, and he also meets the descendants of Sumitra Devi in the same settings where his ancestor had met her.