"Murder in Amaravati" by Sharath Komarraju. This book is published by Amaryllis in 2012 and has 209 pages. This book was longlisted for Commonwealth book prize 2013.
The village hostess (prostitute), Padmavati, is murdered. Body found in Kali temple by priest Krishna Shastri. Head constable, Venkata Reddy, investigates. There are various characters. Sarpanch Seetaraamaiah, his young son Kishore and crippled daughter Indira. Satyam the postmaster and his wife Lakshmi. Shekhar a man who is wasted below waist and his wife Vaishnavi, a drunkard Sanga, Shastri's wife Annapurna etc..
Who killed Padmavati? What will come out of investigation apart from murderer? Who is the murderer? Why was the murderer committed?
The characterization is good. The village atmosphere, it's intricacies, affairs and enmity is depicted very well. Idea of a constable and priest playing detective is also innovative. Murder of prostitute kicks a scandals in a small village.
Story keeps you interested till the very end. The timeline, alibies, confirming the statements from other witnesses etc. shows influence of Agatha Christie.
When I purchased the book I thought it's a murder mystery in God Indra's Amaravati. However it turned out to be a village in Andhra which was the capital of Satvahana kings, once upon a time. So rather than a mythological mystery, it turned out to be a modern day mystery.
There are some avoidable errors in the book e.g. When the Kali mandir was built by Seetaraamaiah much later, how did his mother, Jagdamba, prayed at Kali temple?
I guessed the killer halfway through the book but as the book converged it appears that I had missed the mark but then I was again proved right in epilogue.
If you like murder mysteries, read it. If you want to venture into murder mysteries then this is not the book to start with.
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