Compass box killer by Piyush Jha

"Compass box killer" by Piyush Jha. This book is published by Rupa publications India in 2013 and has 240 pages.

A police inspector, a doctor and a child welfare social worker are murdered. Each one is murdered in a different way and methods indicate that the murderer is highly intelligent and skilled. A compass box is found after each murder indicating the identity of next victim. Inspector Virkar is assigned the high profile case.

Can Virkar solve the case? Will he be removed from the case? Who is Raashi Hunterwal? Why does the murderer leave compass box? Are these murders related? What is the common thread? Will the murderer be apprehended?

This is a classic murder mystery. Readers meet Inspector Virkar again after the novella 'Injectionwala' from authors first book 'Mumbaistan'. Virkar is an interesting character. He stands for rightfulness and firmly believes that guilty should be punished. He does not mind taking unconventional measures or breaking rules to get to his goals. He is intelligent, fit & smart and likes to drink rare Godfather beer. He is also human.

The story is interesting. Pace is uniform. Narration is not dramatic. Author has used a number of Hindi proverbs like 'Dimag ka dahi' in the book giving it typical Mumbai touch.

This is the second time (that's two out of two so far) Inspector Virkar sympathizes with the killer but finds him.

Read if you like mysteries.