Murder Before Carnival-Sameer Kumar

Book: Murder Before Carnival: A Tale of the Floating Body 
Author: Sameer Kumar
Publisher: Flipping Pages

Which is your favorite murder mystery?

Murder Before Carnival by Sameer Kumar is the story of what happens when a dead body is found inside the idol of the Goddess on the last day of Durga Puja at the Red Road Carnival when it is being immersed. As the election dates are close, this becomes an important issue and the top echelons of the state machinery get involved. With the Chief Minister vowing to find the people responsible and bringing them to book within 48 hours. How does the power, politics and people’s emotions impact the investigation forms the story.

There are few murder mysteries that are able to execute the level of detail in a manner which can keep the reader hooked. Murder Before Carnival does that with relative ease. The plot is well planned and being the first book of a series, the amount of information presented is just enough to pique the reader’s interest for upcoming books. There are references to current scenarios as well as some interesting political powerplays that make the story seem authentic. Sameer has taken up the unique murder and the book has been well researched in terms of forensic science and investigation methods. The one thing that can be improved in the book is the editing and the grammar as I found that there were quite a few errors and that actually takes away the fun of such an amazing book. The climax of this book is quite intriguing, and I would love to see the next part come out real soon.

Coming to the characters, I loved the character of Aahana and the many shades of her that we see in the book. While she seems not to be the primary character of the book, the climax of the book suggests otherwise, and I am sure we’ll get to see more of her in the future books of MBC. Another set of characters that I loved were Pradeep, Sudipto and Parimal as they put some very interesting scenes out through the book. The professional rivalries between them was the spice that added fun to this book. I am hoping to see more of John Mark as he did seem to be an interesting piece of work.

Overall a good murder mystery that scores a 3.88/5 for me.

Get a copy of the book here.