Review: Ravi Subramanian Presents

Madness, suicide, possible serial killers and sleaze in glamourous places all feature in the four-volume set of novellas presented by the veteran crime writer

A series of fast-paced novellas with gripping plots filled with mystery and murder, Ravi Subramanian Presents comprises four books handpicked by the eponymous banker turned author, who has 10 popular novels to his credit. These “thrillers on steroids” (Subramanian’s apt description of them) with their short, snappy chapters are page turners in the true sense and it’s quite hard to put one down once you’ve started reading it.

Mumbai, the Maximum City, where three out of the four novels in this series are set. (Pratik Chorge/HT Photo)

Police officers Meera Dixit and Aditya Sachdev are the protagonists of Jigs Ashar’s Insomnia, a psychological thriller. Tasked with investigating a desperate midnight phone call from a sinister house in Mumbai’s Bandra area, the duo finds themselves entrenched in the unhappy story of Rohit Acharya, a man living in constant fear of his wife, Tanvi. The old, unkempt house where the couple lives is in a gloomy two-storey building ironically called Paradise. Rohit has developed insomnia after his wife, who suffers from a mental illness, has begun sleepwalking with a knife in her hand. The romance between the two police officers grows even as the story unfolds and the duo finds much to uncover including hidden motives, deep secrets and evil trickery. The reader learns that “Love spawned overriding greed and ambition. And a lack of remorse.” A moral debate within the police profession also features when Sachdev is forced to shoot Tanvi dead in order to defend himself. Afterwards, the media goes on a rampage with various parties demand the officer’s resignation, and activists staging protests. The sudden climax brings the story to a rather shocking end.

All the titles in the series (HarperCollins)

The second book by Ashar, A Brutal Hand, has Inspector Abhay Rastogi investigating the death of a wealthy businessman. A masked man hits and kills leading diamond merchant, Alok Dalal, with an iron rod just as he is about to get into his car in a Mumbai parking lot behind a theatre complex. The only clue left at the scene of the crime is a yellow Post-It note with the word ‘Sorry’ written on it in black marker pen. Dalal is survived by his wife Madhoo, who is in her late forties, and their teenage daughter Nitya. Enter the many characters in the story – a 47-year-old psychiatrist Dr Neel Burman, his wife Charu, his daughter Inaaya, his secretary Jaya Shetty and his assistant Manohar Rao. Apart from them, there is also Deshmukh, the head of the Byculla Women’s Prison, who, in the past, has brutally violated Arti Shetye, an inmate. While they are still grappling with the case, the police discover another crime committed in exactly the same manner – along with a similar ‘Sorry’ note. Since the modus operandi of the two crimes resemble each other, Rastogi and his team begin to wonder if this is indeed a copycat crime or whether the two seemingly unrelated murders are connected in some way. It’s not a happy thought because “A serial killer is every cop’s worst nightmare”. The team finally finds a common link between the cast of characters and the two crimes. Like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, the bits of the convoluted plot gradually fall into place. Needless to add, as with most classic whodunnits, the most unlikely person turns out to be the culprit.

Both books are set in Mumbai, and the author often describes the Maximum City’s well-known landmarks and neighbourhoods, such as the historic Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, the gothic-style heritage building of the Mumbai Police Headquarters, the engineering marvel of the Bandra-Worli sea-link, the buzzing Bandra-Kulra Complex, and the quaint Dadar Parsi Colony. In A Brutal Hand, the authors also provide a detailed description of the Adarsh Nagar Chawl in the north Mumbai suburb of Kanjurmarg.

The other two novels in the series, Body of Work and Evoked, are by Mansi Babbar. Set in Mumbai’s glamour industry, Body of Work has Raina, a young celebrity reporter at Glitterbug magazine, who wants to expose an international artist who encourages nepotism, the casting couch and underhand means to get what she wants. How do things pan out? “There is no justice in show business” reads a line in the story.

Author Ravi Subramanian (Courtesy HarperCollins)

Evoked is the only book set outside Mumbai in the nearby hill town of Lavasa. A spate of tragic incidents is disturbing the peace of this idyllic place, even as it’s caught in the grip of the worst storm in its history. Three suicides, including two from the same bridge, have been reported within a span of three months. Inspector Mohite steps in to find a complex web of lies and deceit.

Overall, the Ravi Subramanian Presents series is a quick, interesting read and quite a treat for lovers of crime fiction.

A freelance writer based in New Delhi, Neha Kirpal writes primarily on books, music, films, theatre and travel

The views expressed are personal