Death on Diagonal Lane - A Dark Comedy
My latest comedy novel "Death on Diagonal Lane" has been published by Hachette India:
The Book's Page on the Hachette India Website:
https://www.hachetteindia.com/Home/bookdetails/Info/9789391028572/death-on-diagonal-lane
Blurb:
A Dark Comedy Wrapped in A Detective Novel
Diagonal Lane is thrown into turmoil when old Mr. Reddy is found dead in suspicious circumstances. Friendly neighbor Mr. Murthy attempts to keep the police out of it. Friendly neighbor Mr. Shetty bungles it up, and the police do get involved. The police officer who lands up to investigate turns out to be Mr. Murthy’s old school chum: Sub Inspector Rathindranath (Ratty) Gowda. A stroke of good fortune? Not really. You see, Ratty is a sub inspector on the make, one who itches to get the sub off his title and his name in the yellow headlines. He proceeds to put the denizens of Diagonal Lane through the wringer. It takes all of Mr. Murthy’s tact and diplomacy to prevent his childhood chum from putting behind bars all the leading lights of the lane. But meddling too much in murky police affairs, even for purely public-spirited reasons, can sometimes backfire. It does not take Mr. Murthy long to appreciate veracity of that old adage: Policemen have no friends.
A dark comedy on contemporary middle-class India. A sardonic whodunit that lays bare how these sort of things really happen in life-as-we-know-it, rather than in the comforting, otherworldly pages of Agatha Christie.
If you wish to be horribly intellectual about it, you can consider this book to be a somber satire on the Indian middle class.
But if, like most of us, you are just looking for a fun read for a lazy afternoon, you will find here a light farce with scintillating repartee, barmy characters and a Kafkaesque plot that piles absurdity on absurdity.
Excerpt:
CHAPTER 1: Mr. Reddy kicks the bucket
Mr. Reddy, my rheumy-eyed, half-bald, dim-witted neighbor, had had his scarecrow feet trembling on the verge of the bucket so many long years – ever since I knew him, in fact – that it came as a bit of a shock when he eventually kicked it.
News of his passing beyond the tattered veil was first brought home to me by the banging on my front door, in the small hours. Letting go of movie superstar Radhika, whom I was attempting to hoist above my head as part of a complicated choreographed dance move on the cold, misty slopes of Kodaikanal, I lurched upright on my cold, bare bachelor cot. Correctly identifying the muted thumping sound as emanating from my front door and not, as I initially presumed, from the buxom body of superstar Radhika crashing and careening down a Kodaikanal cliff, I put a leg over the side and located my rubber flip-flops. I noted the time on the luminous arms of the wall clock. It was 2AM. The banging continued apace, in time with my beating heart. I shambled up, stumbled through my cold, bare bachelor apartment as quickly as I could and put a sleepy, fearful eye to the spyglass.
Mrs. Reddy stood without in the dim light of the landing, her graying hair a frazzled halo around her pinched, wild-eyed face.
Despite the hour being two, she was dressed to the nines. Figure draped in rich purple silk sari, lips coated aubergine-pink, hair fashionably done up and highlighted with lilac ribbon: she looked not unlike a slim, attractive eggplant. An eggplant, though, with something on its mind.
‘Mr. Murthy!’ she squawked, adding voice-over to the sound effects. If I did not move fast, she would wake up all the neighbors. I yanked hard on the sticky latch and threw open the door.
‘Here I am,’ I said, for there I was. I had no secrets from the Reddys.
‘Oh there you are. You took your own sweet time.’
‘I was sleeping.’
‘A fine time to sleep. And here the world is turning upside down.’
‘This is the time one habitually sleeps, madam. It is 2AM in the morning. What seems to be the trouble?’
‘The trouble! The world has turned upside down, that’s all!’
‘Yes, but in what precise way?’
‘In the precise way that the old duffer’s gone and died on me, the fool.’
‘The who has done what?’ I gabbled. One is not at one’s brightest at 2AM.
‘The duffer!’ repeated Mrs. Reddy, cutting the first few steps of an agitated eggplant quadrille. ‘He’s dead. Expired. Given up the ghost.’
‘Mr. Reddy?’
‘Yes, yes, yes. How many duffers do you know?’
‘Dead?’
‘As a brinjal.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘He is cold. He does not move.’
‘He might have fainted.’
‘I stuck a pin into him. Nothing.’
‘Let me check…’
I hurried into her apartment. Mrs. Reddy followed me, muttering. ‘I told that old soup strainer not to pop off without forty-eight hours advance notice,’ I heard her say. ‘Would he listen? No. Not to the end, he wouldn’t. And what in the name of holy chop suey was he thinking, conking out at this ungodly hour? Couldn’t he have chosen a more convenient time? Inconsiderate to the very end, that noodle head. He always was a bit of a runny omelet, but this time he’s really laid an egg. ’
.... and so on and so forth... the rest of the novel is just as good (or bad). If you liked the above excerpt, you'll love the novel. This is not one of those novels that have a great first chapter and then fizzle out like a damp squib. It bangs on like this from the first page to the last, with unbelievable twists and turns and laugh-aloud jokes on every page (don't take my word for it, everyone who has read it says so, even people I don't know). Of course, this type of humor is not for everyone. This novel is aimed at a particular sort of reader. The sort of reader who is a big fan of P.G. Wodehouse, Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, The Goon Show... If you like that kind of humor, you'll like my book.
Buy it:
You might find it in your favorite bookshop, if they have good taste.
Otherwise you will get it on Amazon India (eBook and Paperback):
On Amazon US:
And on all the other Amazons. Just search for "Death on Diagonal Lane" on your regional Amazon.
Also on Google books (only the eBook):
https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Death_on_Diagonal_Lane
You can also buy it from an Indian bookseller, who will ship it to any country at a lower cost than Amazon (can't confirm this).
https://www.midlandbookshop.com/en/product/death-on-diagonal-lane
You can also find it on eBay, Abe Books, and a number of other places.
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