Six Suspects

by: Vikas Swarup

Published by: Minotaur Books — an imprint of St. Martin's Publishing Group

Reviewed by Beth Cummings

Vikas Swarup was born in Allahabad, India. He graduated from Allahbad University and joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1986. Since then he has lived in several different countries including Turkey, Ethiopia, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the U.S. Currently he is posted in Japan.

Six Suspects is Swarup’s second novel. His first, Q&A, was translated into 40 languages and became the basis for the Academy Award-winning film, “Slumdog Millionaire.”

Six Suspects is an engaging mystery and character study. The book begins with a newspaper article that tells of the murder of an unpopular hoodlum, Vivak Rai, at his own home outside Delhi, India during a celebratory party with over 400 guests. The article further states that the police have six suspects in custody. The remainder of the book, up to the last chapter, tells the stories of these six diverse people – a foolish American from Texas, a Bollywood starlet, a petty pickpocket, an Indian businessman, a black tribal native from the island of Andaman, and a local politician who happens to be the victim’s father. Why were each of these characters at the party and why were they each in possession of a loaded gun?

Besides telling six different but interlocking stories, Swarup has told each of them from a different point of view and in differing styles. Two are told in a first person voice, a third is a series of diary entries, the fourth is a transcription of conversations (both in person and on the phone), and two are told in traditional third-person narration. This, plus the Indian names and places make the book somewhat confusing at first. But I found that it worked. Each character is fully developed and when the mystery finally unravels, the motives and opportunity to commit the crime make sense.

I enjoyed this book a great deal. The Indian setting might not appeal to everyone, but I felt that Vikas Swarup did an excellent job of describing a wide variety of scenarios in modern India.

Armchair Interviews agrees.

Author’s Web site: http://www.VikasSwarup.net