PLOT: 4/5
CHARACTERS: 5/5
MYSTERY & THRILL: 3/5
ENTERTAINMENT: 5/5
Anuja Chauhan is back once again with her trademark witty social commentary, review of Indian families, and her signature charming heroes.
In a typical Indian street called Habba Galli, two people are murdered. I call it a typical Indian street because of the many quirky characters that inhabit the street – there are regular stray dog feeders, fervent dog haters who think they are a nuisance (which is what this set of people is), a single mother who doesn’t care about the society, a young man trying to woo a young woman since childhood, a meek saas and rebel bahu, an old woman tended to by her righteous son, and the nosy, judgy aunty.
When two people from the rabid dog hater squad (rabid is an adjective for the squad) are dead, ACP Bhavani should find out who among these seemingly normal people harboured such hatred.
Anuja’s take on the Indian residential welfare associations is commendable. Like her other books, The Fast and the Dead promises laughter and delight to the readers. She also brings to light the patriarchy, sexism, classism, and the multitude of what is wrong with India today.
If you have read anything, literally anything she has written, you would know that she isn’t someone who minces her words. You might agree or disagree with her opinions but wouldn’t deny that her words hit straight and strong like bullets (you got the pun).
Her language, another thing she is routinely appreciated for, is simple and Indian. For her Indian means that only, like how we talk daily. Got it, na?
The Fast and the Dead is her second crime novel, and from a crime investigation point of view, I liked the first one more. This one didn’t generate as much interest as to who could the killer be – the motives and clues were all quite plain. A crime novel should keep your brain working with theories, guesses, and estimates – but this one just doesn’t.
Anuja pulls an Agatha Christie-kind of curtain raiser on the killer towards the end of the whodunnit, but sadly, even that didn’t evoke any thrill for me.
However, I read the 400+ pages all at once for the fun part. So, while I can’t promise a thriller; a fun book with fun characters is what I can surely promise.
Before I conclude, as you must have heard plenty about Anuja’s dashing male leads, hear it from me about her female characters in this one. The young vet, the divorcee, the wife, the widow, the mother. They cry, fear, feel sad, and worry, but take challenges head-on despite it all. Like Indian women.
In a nutshell, The Fast and the Dead is a wholesome entertainer in every way!
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