Author: Chitrangada Mukherjee
Publisher: Self Published
Do you think love drives us to do strange
things?
Three Men and a Strange Murder by Chitrangada is the story of
what unfolds in the sleepy town of Agartala when a honeymooning couple stumble
across the corpse of a local woman in their backyard. Identified to be that of
one Rituparna Bagdi, a teacher at a local school, the case is handed over to
Inspector Jui Roy, for whom this is the first big case. As the investigation
proceeds, Jui comes across Rituparna’s diary and the story takes a turn as it
tells the tale of three men in Rituparna’s life-Her Ex-Husband Mrinal, her
colleague Virendra Jha and her student Paul Jamatia. As Inspector Roy and SI
Das investigate, they come across some shocking revelations and an aspect of
human psyche that is primal in its very nature. The question remains, who was
the who led to the horrific crime.
The plot of the story is told in a parallel
fashion, with Rituparna’s monthly diary entries forming one set of narratives,
and the murder investigation forming the other. The idea of using a diary to tell
the story of the victim is an interesting way of comparing and contrasting the
events of the present. Another aspect that stands out is the simplicity of the
plot and things have not been made complicated just for adding an element of
intrigue to it. The storytelling keeps the reader hooked and manages to capture
the reader’s interest into the investigation. The element of surprise is
maintained till the very end and true to the premise, the strangeness of the
crime is not let out of the bag anytime before it is supposed to be. The
language is simple and easy to understand. The best part for me was that the
story arc of all the characters comes together and no part of the story was
random or seemed forced. There are a few grammatical issues in the latter part
of the book, though nothing too serious. The climax is seamlessly integrated
and excellently executed.
Coming to the characters, I was impressed by
the character of Inspector Jui Roy and the manner in which she has been
sketched. With shades of grey, her way of investigation was quite interesting
and with the teasers into her life and equations with a couple of other
characters, I would be more than happy to read more crime fighting exploits
from her desk. SI Pritam Das comes across as another promising character and
his quirky mannerisms did make the read funnier. Rituparna’s character was a
surprise though I felt a bit more personalization to her could have added more
to her relativity with the reader. Other characters , and specially the three
men, were devised beautifully and their individuality stands out and adds a
wonderful flavor to the story.
Overall, A recommendation if you are looking
for a breezy murder mystery. The book scores a 4.31/5 for me.
Grab a copy of the book from Amazon Kindle.
(This is an Amazon Associates Link)
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