‘A Fatal Distraction’: This Delhi society murder mystery is racy and engaging despite a few snags

In Samyukta Bhowmick’s novel A Fatal Distraction, not all is as it seems. At the discovery of twin murders in the heart of Delhi, the scaffolding of lies and half-truths that hold up high society life begins to shake, and when the dust settles, many stories will have come undone and trusty gossip set straight.

The drama beneath the surface

The Delhi Daily is a family-owned newspaper, and much like most traditional media, fast turning into a loss-making machine. Its owners, the Kapoors, have long been benevolent patrons, but family entanglements have begun to turn messy. At a book launch party one crackling evening, DB, the editor of the Delhi Daily drops dead, seemingly out of nowhere. This puts every tense interaction at the party under a microscope, and while the list of suspects is still taking shape, another body turns up – Anika Kapoor, the chief suspect herself.

Media attention shoots through the roof, and soon everyone has something to say, a finger to point. Back in the office of the Delhi Daily, an unlikely alliance forms: Mridula and Monami, who are until this point colleagues, but not quite friends. Monami is young and all guns blazing, captivated by all the details in the case that don’t...

Read more