Book Review: In Plain Sight by Mohamed Thaver

 

Book: In Plain Sight 

Author: Mohamed Thaver 

∫Pages: 264

Read: The paperback review copy kindly sent by HarperCollins India; the views are entirely my own 

Read in: 3 hours 

Plot Summary: When the rapes and murders of three minor girls remain unsolved for months, a frustrated DCP Sawant calls in Police Inspector Waghmare. Renowned as Mumbai police's 'investigation machine', Waghmare is rumoured to solve crimes in his dreams. 

As the investigation progresses and every promising lead runs into a dead-end, Waghmare gets an uncanny feeling that the killer is watching them closely and anticipating their every move to toy with them. Then, when the body of a fourth girl is found, Waghmare and DCP Sawant are both saddled with doubts about Waghmare's fabled investigation skills. 

Told from the perspective of rookie crime reporter, Rohan, In Plain Sight is a police procedural set in the terrifyingly surreal world of crime and retribution inhabited by the Mumbai police.

Things I Liked: 

1. The premise of this book seemed really interesting, which is why when HarperCollins kindly offered to send me a review copy, I was quite excited to read it! This book is set in Bombay and and deals with a series of murders in the Kurla East area. There is also a scattering of real-life, true crime cases in the book, which was very interesting to read. 

2. Since the author is a crime reporter himself, he does a great job of giving us an insider view into the world of crime reporting- of following up on leads, trying to curry favour with cops to get some insider info on the case, the rivalry between reporters of different publications etc. Quite enlightening. 

3. The case itself was quite interesting. Three teenaged girls are raped and murdered in the Kurla East area. There is a serial killer at large and he is getting smarter at covering his tracks with every kill. There seems to be no link between the victims apart from a geographic one and the attacks seem like crimes of opportunity but also with an element of planning. The cops are frazzled and doing all the wrong things, when their star investigator- Waghmare- is handed this case. 

4. The investigative process is also quite realistically depicted. The cops go through each of the crime scenes systematically, try to find people with motives, scan mobile records of the whole area as well as CCTV footage to find some leads. Even the breakthrough that Waghmare arrives at is done nicely. 

Things I Didn't Like: 

1. The identification of the murderer was too sudden. There were very little red herrings or clues. So, as a reader you feel a bit cheated. 

Rating: 4/5