One Arranged Murder

One Arranged Murder
Image source: Google

Rating: 4.1/5

Author: Chetan Bhagat

Publisher: Westland

Publishing Date: 28th September 2020

Language: English

Genre: Thriller Fiction

ISBN-10: 1542094135

ISBN-13: 978-1542094139

Format: Paperback

Pages: 312

Cost: Rs. 153 (Paperback), Rs. 109 (Kindle Edition)

Plot:

It is the story of two friends - Keshav and Saurabh, who are business partners for an investigation agency. Both are also colleagues and flatmates. Saurabh gets engaged to Prerna, where he gets more into her than his best friend Keshav and the work. Keshav is not happy with what is going on with Saurabh and makes fun of both Saurabh and Prerna. Since Prerna and Saurabh are about to get married, Saurabh takes the mocking seriously and stops talking to Keshav.

Prerna keeps a fast for Saurabh on Karwa Chauth and waits for the moon to appear before eating anything. She waits for Saurabh at the terrace to see him and break the fast. Saurabh is excited to see her, but when he reaches there, she is not there. She has been murdered!

Review:

The book is not a hardcore crime-thriller; in fact, it has a lot of Indianness to it. The book has all aspects: romance, comedy, murder, action, adventure, family drama, friendships, and light-hearted banter.

Chetan Bhagat introduces almost all the characters within the initial chapters itself which makes you guess who among them must be the murderer of Saurabh’s fiancée. Mostly, after the statements of all the family members are listed back to back. Keshav, as the first voice of the book, tries to decode the case from his perspective keeping us aware of his outdoing, which takes the story further very interestingly.

To break the pattern of first-person narration, Chetan Bhagat makes use of some new formats. For example, after the preliminary police investigations, he decides to move the story forward by including transcribed testimonies of related people. The testimonies quicken the pace and keep things going in a thrilling manner.

The writing style is quite witty with light-hearted humour. Most mysterious ones have comical undertones.

The book also captures the desire for more private, nuclear families, the rise of unmarried professionals, of child-free couple-or bachelorhood, of strong male homo-social bonds that seem to not really need marriage, and so on.

Chetan Bhagat’s latest book is quite simple and easy to read. He has aimed to make the book readable for all the readers out there even for those who aren’t very fluent in the English language. It has been always the case with his books.

About the Author:

Chetan Bhagat is the author of four blockbuster novels, Five Point Someone (2004), One Night @ the Call Center (2005), The 3 Mistakes of life (2008), and 2 States (2009). All four books have remained bestsellers since their release and have inspired major Bollywood films. The New York Times called Chetan Bhagat the biggest selling English language novelist in India's history. Seen more as a youth icon than just an author, this IITD or IIMA graduate is making India read like never before.

Time Magazine named him - one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. Chetan also writes op-ed columns for leading English and Hindi newspapers, focusing on youth and national development based issues. Many of the issues raised by Chetan's columns have been discussed in Parliament and among the top leadership of the country. Chetan is also a popular Motivational Speaker and has given talk's in leading MNC's and institutions. Chetan quit his international investment banking career in 2009, to devote his entire time to writing and make change happen in the country. He lives in Mumbai with his wife Anusha, an ex-classmate from IIMA, and his twin boys Shyam and Ishaan.