Book Review: The Mahabharata Murders by Arnab Ray

Book: The Mahabharata Murders

Author: Arnab Ray

Pages: 304

Read: via the Juggernaut App and Website

Read in: 3 hours

Publisher: Juggernaut

Plot Summary: Duryodhana claims to be reborn. In modern-day Calcutta.

A beautiful model. He cuts her open. His DRAUPADI 

He hammers surgical needles into his SAHADEVA. The head of NAKULA he severs.

Will Detectives Ruksana Ahmed and Siddhanth Singh be able to keep him from his ARJUN, BHEEMA and YUDHISTHIRA?

Or will Duryodhana finally win?

Things I Liked:

1. The premise of this book is very interesting! A serial killer who thinks he is the reincarnation of Duryodhana and is out to kill, who he thinks, signify the 5 Pandavas?! What is not to like?! The book had me at 'serial killer'! Seriously! 

2. This book has some very cool references and hat-tips to the Mahabharata and these were woven into the narrative quite effortlessly. I particularly liked the way each character was linked to the Pandavas and how each was killed exactly like some key characters died in the great war. 

3. The main characters were well etched out and there was a lot of background on each of the following- Ruksana (our leading lady and an honest and dedicated cop), Siddhanth (Ruksana's partner), Pavitra Chatterjee (an honest politician whose posters were placed by the killer at each murder scene) and even each of our murder victims. 

4. The book is quite fast-paced and there are no superfluous characters or events. The plot never meanders and that is something I always appreciate in a thriller! 

Things I Didn't Like:

1. There are very few characters in this book. Around 10 or so. So, that makes it pretty easy to guess who the killer is. I am not a big fan of easily guessing who the killer is! 

2. I didn't quite like the cops in this book. Ruksana is this cynical but honest tough woman cop but she is also a battered woman, who lets her ex-husband or almost-ex-husband beat her up and take her money. There is a half-baked attempt to show Ruksana's home life with her ten-year old son and her love for whisky, but even that was not shown very well. I am not saying that an otherwise tough woman can't be a victim of abuse but it somehow felt very forced and almost like this attempt to add another dimension to a 'femme fatale' (used by a character to describe Ruksana) cop character. Even Siddhant seems very half-baked! You don't really get to know too much about him or see too much of his friends-with-benefits relationship with Ruksana. Some more work around these characters would have made this a better book. 

3. The ending is sort of 'meh'. Ruksana has this great breakthrough but the book ends very tamely. You could argue that it is this very realistic ending and what else could a little cop have done.. but it is done so unconvincingly that it takes away from the impact of the the reveal. 

Rating: 3.5/5