Last Resort - Abhinav Ramnarayan

 Ram is a friend of mine - a fine cricketer and writer, and a singer and mostly a wonderful human being. When he told me his son Abhinav, a journalist in the UK who writes for financial papers, is churning out murder mysteries by the dozen I was keen to read. Ram send me Abhinav's first book 'Last Resort' and I started on it right away.

For a first book its a commendable effort.

I liked that he started off saying that its a Harsha Devnath thriller which sets you up for more from Harsha. It means that the writer is also invested with the character which is always a good sign.

Anyway, Harsha is back from London where he works as a journalist, to meet his old college pals in a reunion of sorts. The venue is a resort, Pipal Resort (that I remember the name of the resort indicates that Abhinav did something well). I also remember that the town is Ramanapettai and the resort is up in the hills. Owner of the resort is the once flamboyant Azhar and other invitees are Maya, Azhar's ex who has a thing for Harsha and one other chap who I fail to remember. Pretty soon there is a murder, a dalit woman is raped and murdered, and the police activity around the resort scares the guests away.

While his romance with the much married Maya is brewing, Harsha's investigative instincts take over and he doggedly pursues the cause for justice and truth - at great peril to himself (and Maya). The village and gender politics, caste and land politics are all covered well in a layered fashion. Abhinav also introduces the reader to rural Tamil Nadu/Andhra and makes it come alive. 

Abhinav keeps the tone fun and humorous, as it should be between college friends. The way he built the main characters is commendable and pretty soon we are journeying with Harsha and Maya and feeling for them. They are believable, credible, likeable and we would like to see more of them. The murder mystery kept me interested right till the end.

A fine debut indeed. But then Abhinav has apparently written four more novels since this so I can only imagine how good he must have become as a writer.  All the best Abhinav and hoping to get my hand son your next soon.

And thanks Ram, for introducing me to Harsha Devnath and his creator.