Razor Sharp by Ashwin Sanghi
e-book
fictional murder mystery
No spoilers here!
Fist of a new series starring a new detective and suspended cop; known as Kutta Kadam since he catches the scent of criminals or case!
This is a different Ashwin than his Bharat series, and I was fond of those series! His magicians of Mazda was a well researched book almost as good as his Rozabel line which is by far his best till now.
This is a departure from those in that the whole premise is changed and here the spotlight is on the murders.
There is a suspended cop who has a daughter who is a lawyer and then his wife who has been shown to have left him. You may have felt sympathy for him initially but then when you get to know why and how she left, there is a conflict of emotions.
The novel at times feels like the screenplay of a web series like the Asura which I had a doubt that Ashwin had ghost written!
So you have ample cuss words and every possible ‘A’ material as you can expect to see in a web series without any censorship! Personally I am not a big fan of these type of series though they are good time pass!
One by one the kills piles up and it is left to the Kutta to come up with who!?
Almost all the characters shown or described in the movie including the lead has a shady character or past or present! This is one Ashwin novel in which no one is good! Each and everyone is imperfect, shady, cunning and of course one of them is the killer!
Though you would suspect many of the characters in the beginning, there is no way you can guess who did it in spite of the character getting introduced early on! Of course that is the typical Ashwin twist! A person who is shown as dark and with suspicion may not be the culprit! But like I mentioned before, no one is shown to be nice or even decent!
Of course since it is written by Ashwin, some Ithihasa and purana and beliefs are thrown in the mix especially in the end when they find out with a shock who the next victim might be! That was a big shock in a typical Ashwin twist!
The series is like Ashwin’s Private series with the only difference that it is based in Mumbai with more fluid characters with weak morals.
This book is recommended only for mature audience, I may not be mature enough to digest some sections of the novel but then it is my personal issue. The world is changing and Ashwin is changing with the times, maybe we need to get on the train and join the crowd! A simple language with a straight narrative with a mix of characters will make your reading smooth without much hassles or confusion.
Regular Ashwin readers will accept it anyway and those who liked his Private series;
I will not be surprised if this comes as a web series in Amazon or Netflix!
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