Author: Nachi
Publisher: Notion Press
What do you look for in a good murder mystery?
Death of a District Magistrate by Nachi explores the events of
what happens when the death by gunshot of a powerful and controversial District
Magistrate brings in the idealistic and puritanical DSP Arjun Iyer to the
District Magistrate’s residence, where his large joint family lives. It seems
like a suicide at first glance, but is it really one? Along with his assistant,
the deeply loyal but irascible, devil-may-care Inspector Munuswamy, DSP Arjun
leaves no stone unturned in investigating the case where surprise upon
labyrinthine surprise awaits them until they arrive at the conclusion.
The story explores a nice premise and brings
a nice character into focus who could be a focus of a series. The plot is quite
interesting, and it starts on a nice note with the murder mystery deepening. I
liked how the author builds up the suspense that surround the death of the District
Magistrate. The storytelling is catchy, for the first part of the story and
keeps the reader turning the pages. The descriptions are vivid and painting a picture
of the events as they occur is quite easy. The plot, however, starts dragging towards
the second half and the events start seeming repetitive and seem like fillers
to increase the length of the plot, without contributing much to the overall
story. The murder mystery plot seems to go on a backburner as things start
closing in. The side plot of the romance also seems half baked. The climax
could have been better without the DSP being judgmental and the flat tempo.
The character descriptions are well done and
quite a part of the first half of the story. Nachi uses the descriptions to set
up the plot in detail as we meet each our characters in detail and set up the
climax way in the beginning as you can piece the path they take in the story.
The thing I loved about the story was that no person is perfect and each of
them have their own flaws and how they work around them, while someone take it
negatively, some channel positive emotions from that.
A good story that could have been better, the
book scores a 4.06/5 for me.
Thank you Writersmelon for providing a copy
in exchange for a honest review.
Get a copy of the book on Amazon India here.
An interesting review that makes one want to read the book! Kudos, Siddhanth!
ReplyDelete