How do you follow a very successful debut novel like 'Q & A', which was made into one of the biggest films of the noughties: 'Slumdog Millionaire'? By writing a novel like this! There are six suspects in this story, in which a notorious gangster is shot dead at a party in Delhi thrown to celebrate his acquittal following a trial for a murder that he did commit.
The book tells the story of the six people that were arrested at the party when the police found handguns in their possession.
The tale kicks off with a newspaper column by an investigative journalist promising to get to the bottom of the case - the dead man, and the verdict in his trial, are much reviled by the Indian people at the time of writing.
The tale finishes with media interviews and a confession, and the final few chapters are thoroughly laced with twist after twist: this novel (like Q&A before it) would also translate into a great modern whodunit.
The book is, as promised on the cover, a 'kaleidoscopic portrait of modern India', taking us to all corners of the sub-continent, vividly describing Indian life and society in all its exciting, colourful, chaotic, noisy, smelly, corrupt, devout and intriguing castes.
So who are these suspects - far from 'Usual' that's for sure! There's a famous, glamorous, successful and very beautiful young (23) Bollywood actress.
Her chapter is told in the form of diary entries over the months receding the day of the gangster Vicky Rai's death: they tell of her experiment with her doppelganger, and give a clear motive for her being a strong suspect for murder - she is carrying a gun, and she really does need him to say yes to a very big favour.
Then there's a Mobile Phone thief - also a University graduate - who happens upon twenty five million rupees in a briefcase in a rubbish bin in an alleyway.
He lives with his mother and a young woman severely disfigured and blind as a result of the Union Carbide explosion at Bhopal.
Guess who the million are linked to - his chapter tells us of his motive for carrying a gun to a party.
A young, very dark skinned, primitive man from the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal comes to India in search of a missing tribal talisman - an ancient stone carved in the shape of a phallus, and said to have been inscribed by the first man.
He is at the party to 'steal' back the carving: but is it the real thing?; why has he been set up by a corrupt government official?; and how did the gun come to be in his bag when he was collared at the scene? Next there's the comedy character, an ignorant Texan in India to claim his 'mail-order' bride: can it really be the famous, glamorous, successful and very beautiful Bollywood actress in the photos that he's been sent during a pen-friend correspondence which ended in a proposal and the transference of several thousand dollars to arrange the wedding? This gullible young man, who looks not unlike Michael J Fox, ends up in a US government witness protection programme as a Porn Film Director, having unmasked some of Osama Bin Laden's senior lieutenants! He too is at the party, in pursuit of a certain actress...
The story of a very corrupt State politician, who happens to be the corpse's father, is told entirely in telephone transcripts - an interesting literary device.
Why would a father being ready to murder his son (as he was), and did he do it? Lastly there a retired senior civil servant: not a very nice piece of work, but, for various reasons, inclined to turn into a living breathing modern day Mahatma Gandhi when he receives a blow to the head.
This makes for an interesting twist, as the character alternates through the narrative between the unlikeable bureaucrat and the inspiring founding father of post-colonial India! So, whodunit? Is it a credible story? I'm not telling, but the confession of the final chapter is an excellent twist in the tale, and the stories of the prime suspects do paint an interesting picture of India's vibrant society.
Suffice to say it won't be the one that you're thinking did it, and you'll have to follow some of the apparently 'incidental' characters closely throughout! I loved this book, couldn't put it down - and finished it in the Crew Room of a security facility in Manchester - but that's another story!