A Will to Kill

October 5, 2020
In this intriguing contemporary whodunit and series launch from Raman (Conspirator), private investigator Harith Athreya receives an invitation to Greybrooke Manor, a colonial-style mansion in southern India’s Nilgiri Hills, from its owner, wealthy businessman Bhaskar Fernandez. Legend has it that the manor is cursed and that every owner will die violently. Though Fernandez’s father, who owned Greybrooke before him, was believed to have died accidentally when he fell from a moving train, Fernandez fears he may become the victim of foul play. To guard against this possibility, he has prepared two simultaneous wills: one to go into effect if he dies of natural causes and the other in case he’s murdered. Fernandez wants Athreya to get to know the possible heirs, who are guests at Greybrooke, and in the worst-case scenario investigate his death. Despite Athreya being on hand, someone’s throat is slit, setting up a classic closed-circle inquiry, complete with a gathering of suspects before the final reveal. Only the ending is a bit of a letdown. Fans of golden age mysteries will look forward to the sequel. Agent: Priya Doraswamy, Lotus Lane Literary.

October 23, 2020

A famous detective receives an invitation to a secluded country house. It will be a gathering of the second generation of a family around the wheelchair-bound, wealthy patriarch who has just developed two wills--one if he dies of natural causes, one if he is murdered. A landslide isolates the group as the detective arrives in the valley. What could go wrong? The first interesting twist is that this country house is Greybrooke Manor, in the Nilgiris district in India, which adds to the story's atmosphere. Rumored to be haunted by the ghost of an Englishman, the manor has been the site of several sudden deaths. That and the knowledge that his family is waiting for him to die, so they can inherit, is what drove Bhaskar Fernandez to write two wills. He also invited well-known sleuth Harith Athreya to the mansion. When a murder does occur, Athreya goes to work. VERDICT Reminiscent of Agatha Christie mysteries, this first in the "Harith Athreya" series is a sure hit for readers who love a taste of foreign intrigue and a solid whodunit. Fans of Ngaio Marsh's A Man Lay Dead and Patricia Moyes's Dead Men Don't Ski will also enjoy.--Cheryl Bryan, Orleans, MA

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2020
Channeling Agatha Christie isn't a bad way for a writer to spend his time, not if he does it well. Raman does it splendidly, thank you, as he demonstrated in 2014's Fraudster, a look at corporate criminality that, at its heart, is a locked-room mystery. Now, in A Will to Kill, India-based author Raman delivers a full-blast Christie mystery set in India but full of classic Christie tropes: an isolated country home, confusing wills, loser in-laws and a rich old man who wonders why his brakes were jiggered, and a poisonous snake appeared in his bed. Of course, there's a murder, but it turns out it's the wrong victim. Fortunately, a master detective is here, one Harith Athreya. He's a little bland compared to Miss Marple and Poirot, as though the author is trying too hard to make him realistic. The solution has roots in crimes far from the country house, but Athreya brings it artfully back home.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)