Name of the book: Killing Ashish Karve

Author: Salil Desai

My rating: 4.5/5

I like to indulge myself in finding background forces resulting in the particular event or incident. And that’s the main cause of getting my mind attracted to the crime novels. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, John Gresham, Jeffry Archer have been on my favorites list for many years. While screen shopping on Amazon Kindle store, my mind stuck on “Killing Ashish Karve” by Salil Desai. The reason was as simple as a familiarity of the surname in the title. As I flipped some pages of the preview available, I just couldn’t stop myself from choosing it as my next read.

Salil Desai didn’t make me regret my choice. The story plot is set to happen in Pune, the city which is my home for past 7 years, I felt more engrossed about the plot. But even if it would have been set in any fictional city, his narration style is very remarkable and details in writings build a very realistic picture of locations, crime scenes. The plot revolves around the suspicious death of a businessman from city and everyone close to him have one or the other motive to get rid of him.

Homicide inspectors from City Police find themselves chasing some eluding facts making any concrete progress difficult in this case. Salil wrote the story with such interesting twists and turns. Some misleading facts set them in wild goose chase, family members pull up non-cooperation card at a crucial time, are very common aspects of any murder mystery, but Salil made it a point of keeping them so interesting that reader feels them very important for the plot to move ahead. When we feel that case about to crack open and guilty will be apprehended, the story takes another turn with the murder of one of a key person. All pieces get linked almost at climax and inspectors make the arrest.

After reading “Killing Ashish Karve” I can say confidently that my search for good Indian murder mystery writer stops at Salil Desai. I am very eager for reading his other works.

Paperback: 260 pages

Publisher: Fingerprint! Publishing (1 July 2014)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 8172345313

ISBN-13: 978-8172345310

Buy your copy at:

Paperback on Amazon

Kindle

Or, a bookshop near you…