Six suspects by Vikas Swarup

"Six suspects" 2nd book by Vikas Swarup. This is a whodunit mystery. By the way 'Slumdog Millionaire' was based on 1st book of Vikas titled 'Q&A'.

Vicky Rai is a young industrialist and son of home minister of Uttar Pradesh. He has a crime history of mowing down pavement dwellers, killing black bucks (based on Salman Khan) and killing a beautiful bartender for refusing a drink (based on Jessica Lal case). On the day Vicky is hosting a party, celebrating his aquital, he is murdered. There are six suspects. A corrupt bureaucrat, a tribal, an unemployed youth,  a top actress, a dim witted American, and Vicky's father (the politician).

What happened? Whodunit? Everyone has a motive to kill. But is it big enough to actually kill? Who is the killer?

Since the suspects are restricted to six the author has gone into the lives of these suspects in detail to establish the story (this is not usual in a typical murder mystery). Vikas has established the characters, their association with Vicky and their motives in detail. The collection of suspects is so diverse that associating them to Vicky is a Herculean task. That's probably why this book is being made in to a motion picture.

Vikas is a decent story teller and keeps you interested. However in explaining the background of six suspects he is left with very few pages for the actual crime and no pages at all for the investigation. Character of Vicky also goes under developed.

The climax is full of action. A new killer appears every 2-3 pages and readers keep guessing how many more twists are still to come. This makes it difficult for readers to recognize the killer. This is what a murder mystery should achieve. I could not recognize the killer.

We can definitely expect more from him in future.

A good read. Recommend reading.

The man in the brown suit by Agatha Christie

"The man in the brown suit", by Agatha Christie.

Anne Beddingfeld, a beautiful young lady, is orphaned and comes to London to look for a job. She sees a frightened man die accidentally by stepping on railway track. A man in brown suit approaches him, posing as doctor, and declares him dead. He also removes an important document from his pocket.

Anne decides to find out the truth. She also finds that a women is murdered. To solve the mystery she decides to take a voyage on a ship to South Africa, spending all her savings. There she meets a number of people but does not know their intentions.

Can she find the murderer? Can she find the man in the brown suit? Are they one and the same? What is the mystery?

The story is slow. Characters appear to be shallow. The novel does not end, for a long time, even after mystery is revealed.

Unlike other Agatha novels, this novel is drab. Agatha Christie hallmarks are missing and suspense is not enticing.

Give a miss to this one.