Thursday, December 17, 2009

Six Suspects by Vikas Swarup .

Vicky Rai, has been shot dead by one of the guests at his own party. The Police arrest six suspects, each with a gun in their possession.

This novel has 558 pages and was written in 2008 by the author of Q&A, which became the film "Slumdog Millionaire". This book is a joy to read and it is the tale of six very different characters. This novel explores at great length current day India, with it's many cultures, problems, economic realities and political scene. This story has a good structure, it starts with the murder itself, followed by the individual stories of all six suspects. Then the evidence up to the murder is examined, followed by a trail of breaking news stories.
This story has a great ending with many twists that forces the reader to question whether the problems in India of apathy, politics, corruption, greed and consumerism are global problems shared by the Western world.

I will not spoil this book for the reader but on page 534 Vikas writes...

There is a grimace frozen on his face, mocking the scales of justice.

...It was then that I suddenly thought about the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes , who was a Brazilian national shot dead by police at Stockwell tube station in London, England. He was shot in the head seven times at close range by Metropolitan Police officers ("The Met") who misidentified him as a suicide bomber about to explode a device on the London Underground. Within hours police discovered that he was not involved in any terrorist act, but was actually an innocent victim.

Six Suspects is a good book, I like it and I think it is a far better book than The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga . Vikas writes with a rich vocabulary and there is so much detail and background with this novel that you feel as though you are living in India. This makes this book a great journey for the reader.
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