A Convenient Whodunnit

Chetan Bhagat’s latest novel exceeds expectations. Particularly if you embark on it with none

- Bhavya Dore

ONE ARRANGED MURDER

by Chetan Bhagat

WESTLAND; 312 pages

One Arranged Murder follows Keshav Rajpurohit and Saurabh Maheshwari, friends who featured in his previous book, The Girl in Room 105. Having attempted that cross between romance and murder, Bhagat returns with a more committed attempt at genre crime fiction. Once best friends and flatmates, the two aren’t on speaking terms when proceedings open, and Saurabh is set to marry Prerna Malhotra, a woman he met on an arranged marriage site.

No time is lost in setting the wheels of the plot in motion; by page 13, Prerna is found dead. On the night of Karva Chauth, she tumbles off the terrace under suspicious circumstances in a home packed with people, secrets and motives. We have the set-up for a classic locked-room mystery.

The story is told through the first-person voice of Keshav, except when Saurabh takes over for one chapter early on, as he discovers the body. This is a blatant contrivance to remove the lover—naturally the prime suspect in such investigations—from the list of suspects.

Deciding to set aside their tiff, the two get down to investigating the death. Conveniently enough, they are allowed access to the police investigation as a favour in return for their having helped to solve an earlier case. Moreover, their proximity to the family—at one point they even inveigle themselves as house guests—places them in a sweet spot for snooping.