And then a young woman named Lexie Madison is found stabbed to death in an abandoned stone cottage. The problem is, Lexie Madison shouldn’t exist. Cassie and her former Undercover boss, Frank Mackey, invented everything about her – name, family, life story – for an assignment for Cassie years back. But that’s still not the most freakish detail: this ersatz Lexie is also Cassie’s doppelgänger.

Determined to solve this multi-layered mystery, Frank wheedles Cassie into returning to Undercover and literally bring Lexie back to life. Coached and wired, Cassie moves into the mansion outside Dublin where Lexie lived an insulated, rather halcyon life with four roommates, all graduate students at nearby Trinity College. Living, laughing, sharing everyday life with perhaps her own murderer, Cassie’s struggle to remain detached and objective gets ever more challenging.

Likeness is most obviously a murderous thriller, although it rises far above typical genre fiction with deeply psychological observations of the fluidity of identity. Lexie Madison tosses identities aside, while Cassie willingly sublimates her own – far beyond the call of career duty. Her tough exterior hides her lifelong fragility: her parents’ sudden death at a young age, her loving but distant aunt and uncle who never managed to make her feel like a permanent member of their family, the ever-temporary quality of her rented, anonymous living spaces, her loss of the most constant person in her life, her limited relationships, all collude to make Cassie vulnerable to the lure of intimacy, of permanence with her new housemates. Her loss of objectivity is almost expected, as her resistance to the inviting sense of belonging lessens meal by meal, tear after tear, day by day.

For those of you who choose to take murder on the run, Heather O’Neill is just the right energetic narrator, with only a small misstep when she attempts a faulty Australian accent. She’s able to take what might be yawn-inducing on the page – I strongly suspect the minutest details of the ongoing exchanges of five roommates would prove flat in print – and ratchet the tempo just enough to discard the burnt toast while keeping the ears tuned to Cassie’s never-stopping reactions. You might solve the whodunit before Cassie does, but the how and why will keep the story firmly stuck in the ears, long after the guilty admits all.

Readers: Adult

Published: 2008

Mikal and Jeo grow up as brothers in a small town in Pakistan – Jeo is the son of former schoolmaster Rohan who takes in Mikal and his older brother Basie when they lose their own parents. When Jeo, training to be a doctor, secretly decides to go to Afghanistan in hopes of caring for the human collateral damage from the post-9/11 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, Mikal immediately decides to join him.

Both young men leave behind their shared family, including the same beloved, Naheed – she who loved Mikal first, but married Jeo at last. The brothers embark on a Odyssean journey to nowhere fueled by a fierce hope to return home. With all their fates unknown, Naheed mourns and waits, her mother Tara desperately fights what she believes is inevitable, and Rohan attempts to save another man’s young boy as he was unable to save his late wife from eternal damnation. The family, splintered by ideologies and violence gone awry, will never be the same again … and yet somehow, a much-transformed new family will inevitably survive …

In spite of needing to finish Aslam’s fourth and latest novel because of a looming interview deadline (I know, lucky me!), I lost all my usual reading alacrity as I approached book’s end, so as to avoid actually reaching that final page. Now as I ready myself for the authorly exchange, I’m bereft that that preparation cost me any lingering comfort of knowing I still had more Aslam to read. Alas, I must settle into waiting mode for his next novel; and patience was never, ever my virtue.

Readers: Adult

Published: 2013

The novel’s dual protagonists take turns revealing the eponymous ‘tale’: Nao, short for Naoko, is a bullied Tokyo teenager dealing with her suicidal, unemployed father while whose closest confidante is her 104-year-old Buddhist nun great-grandmother; Ruth is a hapa Japanese American novelist living on a tiny island off the coast of Canada’s British Columbia. The two women are connected via the vast Pacific waters when a Hello Kitty lunchbox containing mementos of Nao’s life – including a journal retrofitted inside the cover of an aptly chosen Marcel Proust classic, À la recherche du temps perdu (Remembrances of Things Past) – washes up on the island’s shoreline, quite possibly a vestige from Japan’s 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. [Note to self: Tale pubbed exactly two years and one day after the tragedy, and a full decade minus two days after Ozeki's last novel, All Over Creation.] While Ruth attempts to reconstruct Nao’s past from the lunchbox remnants, she also works desperately to find Nao’s present.

All that is reason enough to read the novel and be done. But I dare you NOT to keep thinking long after you reach that final cover. The names will surely keep you challenged: just for starters, might I mention Nao/now, ‘Naoko’ meaning honest child in Japanese and the ‘truth’ she writes or doesn’t write in a work of fiction, her last name Yasutani (which might mean ‘peaceful valley,’ the ironic opposite of Nao’s complicated young life) which also happens to be the name of renowned Zen Buddhist priest Yasutani Haku’un, not to mention the fictional and real-life Ruths, both with husbands named Oliver.

If the names don’t spark further interest about reliable narrators, notions of reality, the art of fiction, the cover could inspire further volumes. Allow me to share a couple of the multi-layers to consider. In the third line down of the story’s opening page is this description: “A time being is someone who lives in time, and that means you, and me, and every one of us who is, or was, or ever will be.” That explanation transforms the title into at least a double entendre, as in ‘a story for now,’ or ‘a story for Nao.’ Add the subtitle, “a novel,” and the author’s name, and you’ve grown a labyrinth of meanings, from ‘a novel story for now by Ruth,’ to ‘Ruth’s novel about Nao,’ and so much more.

I might quibble that by the final pages, a few of the narrative threads were a bit too ‘deus ex machina‘-ly resolved, but I also find myself insisting that sometimes endings just need to be happier than not. That sort of magical thinking perhaps doesn’t make for a perfect novel, but it’s a small price to pay for attempting to redeem humanity through the healing power of sharing words and telling stories.

Readers: Adult

Published: 2013

If the cover looks familiar, Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize-winning creator Mari Yamazaki explains how she risked marital peace to parody “one of the greatest works of ancient Roman sculpture,” Laocoön and His Sons. In spite of her husband’s angry reaction, she insists that her version of Laocoön “wearing a shampoo hat to keep the shampoo out of his eyes” is not such a far stretch: “I’m sure Laocoön washed his fair from time to time, and if he did massage his scalp, he certainly must have struck poses like the one on the cover.” You’ll find that sort of goofy humor on almost every page, all the while learning quite a bit about ancient Roman history, and modern Japanese bathing culture. Yamazaki will entertainingly convince you how such two seemingly disparate topics are actually quite related.

As Volume II begins, Lucius is a favorite of Emperor Hadrian, renowned as the innovative bath architect. In an act of potentially fatal jealousy, Senate members plot to get Lucius out of Rome with a ruse about a creating a new thermae in an area overrun by violent bandits. What happens instead is a bit of brilliant marketing, inspired by Lucius’ timely visit to a Japanese hot spring town where he wins big at a game booth, discovers kitschy souvenirs, and tastes his first bowl of steaming ramen and juicy gyoza. With further unpredictable forays into the land of the “flat-faces” (the phrase still bugs me, but not quite as much this second time around), Lucius learns to build a wooden barrel single bath shippable to the hinterlands, and how to balance the most gaudiest demands with just enough elegantly-tempered details.

Then half-way through the volume, Hadrian’s adopted heir (profligately portrayed by Yamazaki with apologies later – artistic license, right?) dies. With Hadrian’s own health less than robust, Lucius becomes determined to create something soothingly rejuvenating for his Imperator. His search magically sends him to meet “such a beautiful flat-face” as he’s never seen before … who just happens to be an ancient Roman scholar who speaks perfect Latin! Talk about back to the future … in centur-ion leaps!

Readers: Young Adult, Adult

Published: 2013 (United States)

Choi lives with his widowed mother and his Uncle Kim in a “rundown apartment building in crowded Hong Kong.” Dismissed from school early one day, he watches his mother dragged away by Japanese soldiers. On Christmas, 1941, Japan takes official control of the island; for its citizens, occupation means destruction, starvation, imprisonment, and death.

Up in the mountains searching for firewood, Choi meets Taylor, the hapa son of Uncle Kim’s friend; Taylor’s American mother went to visit her California family and has been unable to return to Hong Kong since Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. The two boys trade wood for food when they can, which leads them to meet a kind Japanese soldier who teaches them enough Japanese to give them a job at the military station. The boys’ entry there provides access to information, food, and even medical supplies they can pass on to Uncle Kim …

Award-winning author and publisher Icy Smith – whose last book detailed war’s atrocities in Half Spoon of Rice – clearly channels her own family background here. Her opening dedication is a harrowing warning: “This book is dedicated to my father, uncle, and grandmother, who lived the reality of Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation. My uncle was forced to work for the Japanese military and transported prisoners to death camps. … My father was a slave boy who witnessed the Japanese brutalities … My grandmother was victimized by Japanese soldiers for three long years and became a nun after the end of World War II.” Hopefully, the single, kind ‘enemy’ soldier was also a part of Smith’s ancestral past. Decades later, Smith bears witness, first with personal story, then with “Remembering History” at book’s end with dates, facts, numbers, and period photos.

As much as Smith’s words capture this true story, Jennifer Kindert‘s illustrations vividly enhance the chilling experience. Kindert, a Texas-based Thai adoptee of Swedish parents, has a lush style that fills each page with careful, intimate details which bring readers immediately into each scene: the distant worried look of a young mother with two small children she carries balanced in a basket, the treasures local residents have brought the Japanese troops to trade for a few cups of rice, the upturned face of an imprisoned woman momentarily distracted from her heavy labor, the portrait of Emperor Hirohito on the wall with his head symbolically truncated from view as a group of soldiers initially hear the news of the first atomic bombing. Every picture reveals and intensifies both the horror and the humanity.

Too much of our history is filled with tragedy… perhaps bearing witness, even in childhood, is one way to combat the nightmarish repetition. Hope springs eternal, right?

Readers: Children (with caution), Middle Grade

Published: 2013

As in Freeman’s absorbing 2009 debut, A Disobedient Girl, the intricate lives of young children take center stage in On Sal Mal Lane. In 1979, the titular Sal Mal Lane is a small cul-de-sac on the outskirts of Sri Lanka’s largest city and former capital, Colombo; in spite of the diverse households, the residents live in relative peace. If they are not exactly friendly, then they certainly live as tolerant neighbors one and all. The Herath family of two parents, four young children – Suren the musician, Rashmi the singer, Nihil the cricketer, and baby Devi the favored – and their servant move into the quiet enclave, reshuffling friendships and alliances throughout the lane.

The Heraths are educated and cultured, and their four children, whose ages range from 7-and-a-half-year-old Devi to 12-year-old Suren, “were different from all the others who had come and stayed for a while on Sal Mal Lane.” In addition to each being neat and clean, well-mannered and talented, their devotion to one another – ”the way they stood together even when they were apart … every word uttered, every challenge made, every secret kept, together” – is a gift to behold.

Even as the Heraths’ lives intertwine with that of their neighbors, beyond the safety of their small street, the rest of the country is at an impasse. Ethnic, religious, and political differences among a population with a long history of divisions, colonizations, and suppressions foment through the years, leading up to a coming civil war that will break out in 1983 and last over a quarter-century. “Everyone who lived on Sal Mal Lane was implicated in what happened … the Tamil Catholics and Hindus, the Burgher Catholics, the Muslims, and the Sinhalese, both Catholic and Buddhist. Their lives were unfolding against a backdrop of conflict that would span decades … And while this story is about small people, we must consider the fact that their history is long and accord them, too, a story equal to their past.”

Freeman surely doesn’t disappoint. As she unwinds what happened – with prose both lingering and breathtaking – the children, even the lane’s bully who could have been different with just the occasional kindness, will charm you, tease you, play with you, and when they leave you, they’ll shatter your heart. “To tell a story about divergent lives, the storyteller must be everything and nothing,” Freeman’s prologue concludes. “If at times you detect some subtle preferences, an undeserved generosity toward someone, a boy child, perhaps, or an old man, forgive me. It is far easier to be everything and nothing than it is to conceal love.”

What possessed you to write this novel? How did it come about?
First, I had been a little down about a magazine piece that did not work out. [The article] had to do with the end of the war [the Sri Lankan Civil War – July 23, 1983, to May 18, 2009], and the editor wanted a very pared-down story with easily identifiable villains and saints. I wanted to write a more nuanced story. Second, I didn’t set out to write this novel, in particular. I was just dabbling with this and that, sketching out some anecdotal bits about growing up down a lane like this one. It was one of my brothers, Malinda, who nudged me down this road. He started chatting back with me – via Google Chat – reminiscing about that time and there it was – the novel I wanted to write. This story that was the one I had been trying to put into that magazine article, the one that was not easy but faceted and brittle and gentle and layered. [... click here for more]

Author interview: “Feature: An Interview with Ru Freeman,” Bookslut.com, May 2013

Readers: Adult

Published: 2013

“If a few days before your birthday your mother should say, ‘I think I’m going to bake a cake and buy some juice. Why don’t you ask one of your friends to come over to play?’” You welcome your Mother’s suggestion, but ask for a little more: “‘Well, could Jack bring someone and maybe some food too?” When your distracted mother answers, “‘Of course. Invite anyone you’d like,’” well, then … there’s all the permission you ever needed! And you write the invitation just so: “Come to my party. It’s my BIRTHDAY. Bring along whoever you want and whatever you like to eat.”

Jack and his brother Larry bring cookies. Jack tells Beto and Antonieta who can’t bear to leave their parrot home, and arrives with pineapple, mangos, and passion fruit. Of course, Antonieta had to tell her best friend Fatima, who tells her brother Djamel, so their mother sends tajine with olives and pickled lemons. Tony will want to bring cousin Carlo, with pizzas and gelato to share. Which means Hannah and her little brother will come with their canary to meet Antonieta’s parrot, along with a Black Forest cake and springerle, too. Maria is their neighbor, so she shows up with her macaw, as well as flan and cod cakes. Carmen brings paella, and Tamio brings sushi. Along with so many friends and such festive eats, the backyard fills with salsa dancers and a reggae band … and suddenly, “your birthday party could turn out to be the craziest, wildest, funnest party ever!”

Author Machado, who won the 2000 Hans Christian Andersen Award – the world’s highest international recognition for kiddie book writers and illustrators – knows how to party, bringing together all the different friends, families, cuisines from around the world into one multi-culti celebration. Machado’s artistic comrade-in-colors, Hélène Moreau, gives delicious vibrance to every part of the party preparations, gathering friends, foods, animals, and eventually even the parents who just can’t stay away. Machado shows us just how easy every day could be party day … no excuses necessary to gather, laugh, and dance …!

Readers: Children

Published: 2013 (Canada, United States)

Aang, of course, is there, as is Zuko … who is solemnly affected by the wise man’s words: “I put my father in a prison and my sister in an institution. My mother’s been banished for years. What does that mean for my nation?” Zuko questions. And so the all-important search begins … for answers, for family. [Speaking of family, how thrilled are we that 2006 National Book Award finalist Gene Luen Yang continues to script these all-new Avatar adventures?!!]

Once upon a time, Ursa and Ikem were in love, expecting to spend forever together. But then-Fire Lord Azulon had other plans, determined to bind his family line with that of then-Avatar Roku’s. And so the stage was set for destruction: Ursa wed Fire Prince Ozai, who forced her to cut off all ties to her family and her hometown of Hira’a. After Ursa bore two royal children, she disappeared without a trace.

Years later, Zuko is convinced that finding his mother is the only way to achieve lasting peace. He releases his violent, unpredictable younger sister Azula in exchange for vital information she has about their mother; at his request – and against their better judgment – Aang, Katara, and Sokka join the antagonistic siblings on a journey back to Hira’a … but answers, of course, are rarely obvious and family dysfunction is never easily overcome.

Zuko’s about to discover the secret of his life (literally!) … and, of course, when he does, the volume ends (!) right there (!!!) and we’re forced back to waiting, and waiting. At least June is only a month away, harrumph. Who made the mistake of insisting patience is a virtue?

Readers: Middle Grade, Young Adult

Published: 2013

Part Three opens with war – in the pouring rain, wreaking havoc on earth, throwing around fire as lightning threatens, the air aswirl in chaos and destruction. The Fire colonies will not budge out of the Earth Kingdom, and the Harmony Restoration Movement is not even close to reaching peace.

Friendships and alliances are threatened and tested; worst of all, looms the titular ‘promise’ Aang made to kill Zuko, at his request, “if you ever see me turning into my father.” As tempers flare, Zuko finds himself battling his father’s demands, even as the former Fire Lord Ozai remains imprisoned. Torn and twisted, Aang must find a way to reclaim peace, even if it means challenging the ones he most loves and respects.

On the brink of vast, irreparable destruction, the Avatar teaches us, of course, that violence is never the answer – indeed, banding together for peace proves most powerful of all. If we can train young minds through such entertaining adventures now, surely the next generations will make that peace a lasting reality? I’ll willingly stick with that narrative …

Oh, and speaking of sticky – check out who and how boba tea got invented back in the day. Talk about an Uncle Iroh (who was voiced in the animated series by the legendary actor Mako before he passed away!) ahead of his time! So surprisingly sweet, indeed.

Readers: Middle Grade, Young Adult

Published: 2012

“You’re in there and I’m out here, outside Mama’s belly. I’m waiting for you!” the ineffable little girl announces to the bump that is her mother’s belly. As the pregnancy progresses, the colorful bulge on the left side of each double-page spread continues to grow; a small flap allows a growing peek into the sleeping, pink-cheeked bundle within as the little girl merrily demonstrates what a wonderful older sister she will be!

She offers a light in case the belly is too dark, is ready to share her favorite sweet surprises (as are the ants, ahem), draws bathtime pictures of possible family resemblances, sings songs, and announces her excitement: “You are already part of the family.” With her mother’s belly about to burst, she beckons, “… we’re all waiting for you. Come out and play!” with promises of all the adventures she’s planning to share.

Then, momentarily, the belly disappears (a blank page save for a few words) … until Mommy and Daddy’s legs walk back on the next page … and sure enough, “Hello, Baby! You’re finally here. And I am finally a Big Sister!”

Exuberant and charming, adorable and playful, imaginative and interactive, Hello is … well … literally perfect.

Readers: Children

Published: 2013 (United States)

Kirino here retells the eighth-century creation myth of Izanami and Izanaki – the original female and male gods whose union produced the Japanese islands – in a novel framing two sisters, one fated to become the next Oracle to serve the “realm of light,” the other who will serve the “realm of darkness.” Unwilling to accept her fate, Namima attempts an escape that damns her to Izanami’s Realm of the Dead. Readers will find echoes of Orpheus and Eurydice as well as Persephone and Demeter.

Verdict: Although inventive, the double narrative of sisters and gods – the former freeing, the latter bound to centuries-old history – never quite meshes, often feeling clumsily forced. Still, bestselling Kirino’s many devotees will likely provide a ready audience

Review: “Fiction,” Library Journal, May 1, 2013

Readers: Adult

Published: 2013 (United States)

Here in his penultimate title, the ever-irreverent Alain de Botton recognizes that power of religious architecture, and suggests that even better would be to create secular temples with similar goals: “they would all be connected through the ancient aspiration of sacred architecture: to place us for at time in a thoroughly structured three-dimensional space, in order to educate and rebalance our souls.” Build and we will come, for sure!

Beyond holy architecture, in the vein of ‘don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater,’ de Botton wants to “reverse the process of religious colonization: … to separate ideas and rituals from the religious institutions which have laid claim to them but don’t truly own them.” While fundamentalists might be ready to issue a fatwa, de Botton’s message is hardly threatening: ignore the dogma and let’s find ways to be better people living better lives.

Divided into revealing one-word chapters – “Kindness,” “Tenderness,” “Perspective,” and so on – de Botton uses his usual charming erudition to reclaim the best of religion: “many of the problems of the modern soul can successfully be addressed by solutions put forward by religions … Religions are intermittently too useful, effective and intelligent to be abandoned to the religious alone.” Ready to learn? Choose the page; while Kris Dyer’s excellent narration can’t be faulted, you won’t want to miss the photos and illustrations – many of them are downright illuminating, ahem!

Of de Botton’s mutiplying shelf of philosophically questioning, cleverly revealing treatises, Religion is perhaps not among his strongest – it’s lighter in research and depth than many of his others. His choice to draw on just three religions (“primarily Christianity and to a lesser extent Judaism and Buddhism”) feels a bit as if he’s avoiding that other elephantine monotheistic faith (did I mention fatwa?); his explanation as to why he chose those three among the “world’s twenty-one largest religions” doesn’t quite convince. That said, if you want to tickle and expand your brain, you can never go wrong with de Botton. Trust me; have faith.

Tidbit: Make sure to check out de Botton’s “A Manifesto for Atheists: Ten Virtues for the Modern Age” in full. While you’re waiting for the page to load, here’s an abridged version to get you started …

1. Resilience. Keeping going even when things are looking dark.
2. Empathy. The capacity to connect imaginatively with the sufferings and unique experiences of another person.
3. Patience. We should grow calmer and more forgiving by getting more realistic about how things actually tend to go.
4. Sacrifice. We won’t ever manage to raise a family, love someone else or save the planet if we don’t keep up with the art of sacrifice.
5. Politeness. Politeness is very linked to tolerance, the capacity to live alongside people whom one will never agree with, but at the same time, can’t avoid.
6. Humour. Like anger, humour springs from disappointment, but it’s disappointment optimally channelled.
7. Self-Awareness. To know oneself is to try not to blame others for one’s troubles and moods; to have a sense of what’s going on inside oneself, and what actually belongs to the world.
8. Forgiveness. It’s recognising that living with others isn’t possible without excusing errors.
9. Hope. Pessimism isn’t necessarily deep, nor optimism shallow.
10. Confidence. Confidence isn’t arrogance, it’s based on a constant awareness of how short life is and how little we ultimately lose from risking everything.

Readers: Adult

Published: 2012

Pot-san – the Japanese equivalent to “Mr. Pot” – welcomes newly-arrived Teacup to the table, enjoying their first cup of hot tea together with smiles and happiness. He has a “horrible dream” trying to save Teacup, but wakes just in time for Cheese Cake’s visit. He flies off-table with friends on a magic tray, only to injure delicate Teacup! Last, but hardly least, Pot-san helps Miss Salt feel inclusively needed when he introduces her to Chips Bigbowl who would love nothing more than to share a toothsome sprinkling.

Relying on colorful, fun, everyday objects, lauded author/artist Satoshi Kitamura cleverly addresses some of today’s stressors on young children. Pot-san shares the anxiety of new situations, how to be a good friend, how risky behavior can have serious consequences, and how sticking up for and enabling friends are both necessary and rewarding.

So while the kiddies cheer through valuable life lessons with charming Pot-san, we oldsters could take a moment to indulge in a cup of tea, too … and pass the Cheese Cake, please!

Readers: Children

Published: 2013 (United States)

Arcadia follows some four decades in the life of Bit Stone, named so because he “is tiny, a mote of a boy.” His claim to local fame is that he’s the first child born on the 1960s commune in upstate New York called Arcadia – initially known as Ersatz Arcadia before the proper Arcadia House is built. The book’s first half follows Bit’s boyhood as he introspectively observes the ecstatic hope of founding a utopian society, and its inevitable demise through too much drugs and sex, and not enough objective leadership.

Fast forward suddenly to Bit as a father, cuddling his young daughter Grete who is not yet sleepy. Absent is Bit’s wife, she who was Helle – wild, troubled, and lost again – the daughter of Arcadia’s wayward leader. On the wall across from their daughter’s bed is a mural, as yet unfinished, that captures Bit’s memories of an Arcadia that no longer exists, a time still heady with beauty and potential. All grown up and out in the ‘real world,’ Bit is a professor of photography; he tries to keep his splintered family together, be both parents to his only child, keep up with a few scattered friends, and teach his students. When a tragic emergency calls him back to Arcadia where his father went gone off-the-grid years ago, Bit is led back to his past … and finally begins to envision a future.

While the whole book is gorgeously written – Groff conjures intimate details with such evocative precision as to place you right there on every page – the two halves read like opposites: the first half is predictably foreseen, the second half unexpectedly fresh. That said, to fully appreciate (sigh and sniffle over) the latter, you’ll need to patiently invest 150 pages in the former. For me, no regrets; curiosity would not have let this book go unread.

Readers: Adult

Published: 2012

Vicky Rai – playboy, entrepreneur, murderer – is dead. No one is particularly upset: “He was the poster boy for sleaze.” And yet, because of the elevated lives of the rich and famous – “Not all deaths are equal. There’s a caste system even in murder” – Rai’s death is headline news. He was shot in his own farmhouse just outside Delhi, while celebrating his latest undeserved acquittal.

The eponymous six suspects are found on site, each with a possible murder weapon: a formerly high-ranking government official who thinks he’s Gandhi; Bollywood’s most beloved actress who longs to hear from her estranged family more than any devoted fan; an unworldly “tribal” young man desperate to recover a sacred stone; a former cell phone thief who uncovers a fortune in a dustbin; a dirty politician who happens to be Rai’s father; and a Texan who thinks he’s about to get married to the mail-order bride of his dreams. Murder and mayhem indeed!

Six Suspects is Vikas Swarup‘s follow-up to his bestselling debut, Q & A, which morphed into the international film sensation, Slumdog Millionaire [as almost always, the book is even better!]. While an enhancing blend of ironic satire and grim reality illuminated Q & A, Swarup isn’t quite able to pull off the same success here. The back-and-forth from near-screwball comedy to the corrupt tragedy of excessive violence and the power-elite’s dismissive lawlessness, is more disturbingly jarring than it is potentially thought-provoking. The narrative ultimately feels forced at best, confused and contrived at worst.

To reach the denouement – expertly unexpected as it is – requires perhaps too great a commitment at almost 500 pages of whodunit. As unique and surprising (some might say preposterous) as specific story details might be – spirit possession in drag, a hijra with a heart of gold, a blind Bopal gas disaster poster child-now-adult, and so much more – the novel’s multi-layered plot never quite emerges from its derivative shadow: think Agatha Christie’s play, The Mousetrap (still playing since 1952 in London’s West End, making it the longest running play in modern history!), or perhaps even that dastardly boardgame Clue.

I confess that some sort of blind loyalty to Q & A kept me turning the pages, as well as the thought I was ‘earning’ the right to read Swarup’s third title, The Accidental Apprentice, which recently pubbed across the oceans, although a Stateside release date remains unknown. Yes, just that potential was enough to get me through, albeit not without the occasional grumbling.

Readers: Adult

Published: 2009 (United States)