Book Review- Killing Ashish Karve

KILLING ASHISH KARVE-SALIL DESAI

Crime fiction is a genre I have always enjoyed. Though I have marked that not many Indian Authors attempt this genre. Contrary to this,Salil Desai has penned down two murder mysteries. This one being his first. After reading a lot of rave reviews and being termed as “The Best murder mystery by an Indian Author so far”, I was itching to pick this one.

Sanjot Karve, the wife of Ashish Karve, goes to the police station to file a missing complaint of her husband. The Police not believing her at the very first instance,later find a dead body in a car. Identifying the body as Ashish Karve the police department then start their investigations. A Suicide  note is found alongwith the dead remains, but Senior Inspector Saralkar is of the opinion that it is a murder. Tracing one clue at a time, how he, alongwith PSI Motkar unveil the mystery is the crime fiction thriller by Salil Desai.

I have read murder mysteries before but this is first of a kind where they have given step by step procedure of how the police department works on a murder/suicide case. And I must say the author has done a good job with it. He has worked hard on the usage of words as well. The use of words have been pertinent and accurate, making it a simple as well as an enjoyable read. The biggest thing according to me for a novel to do well is the strength of the characters. The author wins your heart with strong characters of Sanjot Karve, Suchitra Chopra, Jaideep Karve,PSI Motkar and my favourite Senior Inspector Saralkar. His character is written to perfection. He is intuitive, smart,witty and fearless. A lot of different traits of his personality come through, throughout the narrative. Another ace of the book is the relationship depicted between Saralkar and Motkar. It is humorous, witty and make for a delightful read. The reader almost waits for their conversations to happen throughout the story-telling.

Alongwith the positives there are negatives as well. The characters of Saralkar and Motkar are penned so well that one yearns to read their discussions. I wish those conversations were crisper. Too much description sometimes makes you skim through it and read only their dialogues. ALso I wasn't very happy with the climax. First of all in the beginning itself I had a little inkling over who the killer was (Blame Sydney Sheldon and all his racy reads!!). Secondly I do not think the reason was justified. It is the 21st century. We are looking ahead in life. Looking at equality, then why would we consider this topic taboo. How can the murderer be so ruthless as to kill someone on this basis or have such a regressive opinion on this matter.

Inspite of this, this book has been drafted well and Kudos to Salil Desai for this. If nothing then this book should definitely be picked up to witness the sheer camaraderie between Senior Inspector Saralkar and PSI Motkar.

Stars- 2.5/5