Six Suspects

Vikas Swarup created headlines when he came up with a brilliant debut novel called Q & A. The novel was such a hit worldwide, that it was made into a movie called Slumdog Millionaire…which, in its turn, won 8 Oscars in the recent 2009 Academy Awards show. Seeing the cover of Six Suspects, Swarup’s second novel, anyone would be attracted to it, because of the name he has created for himself. Anyway whodunits mostly make good reads. Right?

Before we dwell into the positives and negatives of Six Suspects, let us look at the plot. An obnoxious self-obsessed son of a politician, notorious for his playboy ways,  is murdered. Vivek “Vicky” Rai was celebrating his acquital from the high profile Ruby Gill case, whom he murdered 7 years ago, when his murder took place. Six of the guests who attended the function were held as suspects to the murder.

They are a Bollywood sex bomb actress, a tribesman from Andaman, a hand phone thief, an insipid American, a retired bureaucrat apparently possessed by Mahatma Gandhi and lastly the father of Vicky Rai himself, a prolific and cunning politician from Uttar Pradesh. Each and every one of the six suspects had a weapon in his or her hand, together with a clear motive. So who killed Vicky Rai?

Investigative journalist Arun Adwani is the character that is the narrator of the book, and acts as a guide as he take you through the list of suspects, their motive and the night of the killing. As you dwell further into the book, you might make assumptions and assume you have a rough idea who the killer is but the novel surprises readers with a twisted ending, very much reminiscent of Agatha Christie and her famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot.

Although the book is a little long (about 500 pages), Vikas Swarup takes us on a rollercoaster ride to hell, earth, heaven and everywhere else imaginable with sufficient doses of humour, satire, romance and pathos in his work. Intelligent and attention-grabbing, the book provides a good few hours of informative reading on India’s political system and the horror of corruption that exists in government systems around the world, using the cover of a murder story. Highly recommended read!