Death In The Air – A Murder Mystery That Asks Philosophical Questions

Rohan Krishna, lawyer, wants revenge

Death in the Air published by Harper Collins is Ram Murali’s debut novel.  Murali began his career as a lawyer in private practice in London and Paris and has worked for many years in film and television. His novel seems to be following in the generic footsteps of an Agatha Christie murder mystery but offers a variety of themes and reflections on diasporic life that challenge the conventional detective fiction genre.

The protagonist Rohan Krishna is a cosmopolitan lawyer, descended from Tamil Indian parents who immigrated to the U.S. At the beginning of the novel, Ro is in the midst of a career crisis, having been denied his just rewards for his hard work on a project by a woman who was his supervisor, and who has spread lies about him.  Ro wants justice for the unfair treatment he has received personally and also for other individuals from racial minorities who have been wronged similarly in the history of this woman’s career. Ro agrees to a scheme of revenge, assigning the task to an acquaintance named Alex, and heads off for a yoga spa retreat at Samsara, a resort near Rishikesh, in the foothills of the Himalayas.

Diasporic desis seek spiritual solace

Murali devotes a lot of time setting up the location of the murder plot in the exclusive Samsara resort. We are introduced to many characters who are visiting, the owner of the resort, as well as the yoga teachers and doctors. The clientele are the very wealthy Indians who are industrialists, politicians, western yoga enthusiasts, and diasporic desis who wear designer clothes, live very privileged lives, and like Ro are still on a spiritual quest to seek something beyond the conspicuous consumerism of their lives.

It is within this milieux, that the first murder of a beautiful and very wealthy woman of Indian origin takes place. Ro finds himself recruited to be part of the investigation. While the investigation proceeds per the usual methods of deductive reasoning and a logical search for motives, alibi, or the absence thereof, there are other unexpected elements thrown into the investigation. While Ro seems to be proceeding based on his training with a lawyer and working in tandem with the police inspector,  he is also influenced by non-scientific methods like divination using crystals and pendulums.

Unravelling mystery with logic and crystals

This movement between the logical and pseudo-spiritual realms is sometimes a little jarring for a reader expecting the usual trajectory of a mystery plot.  Many detective fiction novels are rich in atmospheric details and evocative of a particular place. Murali tries to give his readers a sense of Rishikesh, the place where the Beatles went to practice yoga and still a revered site of Hindu pilgrimage because of its proximity to the River Ganga. However, except for a description of the ceremony of lights and worship of the River Ganga, Murali is more focused on the interiors of the Samsara resort and its luxuries than the majestic Himalayan landscape.

In describing the characters, there is also a great deal of attention on designer labels of their clothing and jewelry rather than their physical characteristics. Thus, many characters do not seem come alive and develop complexity. The characters also seem to come from the upper echelons of a global elite. The poorer sections of the Indian population seem to be largely absent from Samsara.

A murder mystery with philosophical questions

Like any murder mystery, this novel does offer a surprising denouement. However, it does not evoke a sense of fear, which is often the expectation from this genre. Since it seems to be concerned with larger philosophical questions like spiritual well-being, the immediacy and terror of murders seem to be somewhat diluted. The spiritual quest that seems to be the object of many characters who have arrived at the resort also seems for most characters to be a distraction, at best a temporary break from their real jobs as businessmen, film stars, or politicians. The novel is a keen commentary on the vacuousness of new neoliberal elite in India.

For diasporic Indians, returning to their ancestral place of origin is unlikely to soothe any of the feelings of unrest and isolation that they experience in metropolitan centers. The novel thus delivers a rather grim picture of diasporic Indian elites and the alienation experienced in their lives.

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