Murder in Amaravati by Sharath Komaraju - A Review

It is the same April. It is the same summer. It is the same me. Only one difference is it is about 18 years ago. That's the time when I started reading books (really too late, I agree). Those were Tamil novels. And, those were crime novels by Pattukkottai Prabakar & Rajesh Kumar (google for them if you don't know). From that time on, crime novels have become a passion for me (yes, over a period of time, the genres expanded, but there is no way you can take out "crime" from that list). Sharath beautifully brought back my memories that I have just written above.

Since, this is a crime novel, it is very important for me to make sure that I do not leave any spoilers in my review! So, my review will only touch the peculiarities of this one. Living in a congested city like Bangalore, and being querulous about traffic, infrastructure issues, water problems etc., always, Sharath takes us to our dream village "Amaravati" and I felt the breeze emanating from Krishna by sitting under that 'Tree'! And, I forgot, for the rest of the period that I read and completed the book, that I am in Bangalore. Beautiful, Sharath! You bring back my childhood memories!

Any crime novel must have three things in my opinion. (1) A good plot, (2) Not able to guess where is the clue (3) Not able to guess who is the culprit. In a peaceful village like Amaravati, a sudden matutinal murder happens, at a place that no one expects. So, obviously, there is a good plot. From the beginning every single talk, every single object appears to our eyes that "that's odd, that's probably kenspeckle to solve this". And, as you read through each character, your mind starts thinking "Ah, this person is the one who did this! Sure, his motivation is superior to others'". Our mind works faster than Venkat Reddy, the investigator, in this murder case. And, we start putting two and two together and come to the conclusion only to know that we have another one to suspect. Finally, the murderer is some one that many of us might not even have suspected (I exclude myself, because I got a hunch from a hint in the chapter on this character, though as I moved further I suspected others too - so now you know how interesting is this book :-))

The book always keeps us at edge of the seat, and never allowed us to put it down. "Motive, Means & Opportunity" - How beautifully Sharath summarizes it -the three essential things that makes a crime possible (and hence made this book possible too). If at all there is anything that the author can do better, it is the language that can be polished a bit, and avoid redundancies (as in explaining some stuff). I read in the back cover that "Murder in Amaravati" is Sharath's first novel. Kudos to him! I also came to know that he has written more novels after this one, so, I will add them to my reading list queue.

I rate it 4/5.

Plot             - 4.5/5

Characters - 4.5/5

Language   - 3/5