Nylon Rope by Sujatha

Edition Details:
Format: Paperback
Page Count : 115
Publisher: Westland
ISBN: 9789386850034
Translated by: Suganthy Krishnamachari

First Sentence:
I’m eighteen years old.

G.N Krishnan was found dead in his apartment. He was a bachelor who believed in enjoying the nice things in life. Now some one had choked the life out of him, most probably by using a ‘Nylon rope‘.

When police start investigating  Krishnan’s murder they zero in on two suspects viz Harini, who was an estranged lover of Krishnan, and her brother Dev, who had recently fought with Krishnan and had threatened to kill him. They are the prime suspect and police are sure that they have found the people responsible for the murder.

But Harini and Dev are denying any involvement in this murder. They go to Ganesh for help. Ganesh is Dev’s friend and is a lawyer.

Are Harini and Dev telling the truth? Would Ganesh be able to save them?

If Harini and Dev are telling the truth then who killed Krishnan? And, Why was he killed?

Superintendent Vishwanathan Ramanathan is going to retire in 15 days. He thinks this unsolved murder is his responsibility and he’s determined to solve it.

Will he be able to solve the mystery before his retirement?

You’ll have to read the book for finding that out

Main Characters:
G N Krishnan – Manager at a private Company in Bombay. He’s found murdered in his apartment
Harini – Girl friend of Krishnan who was miffed because Krishnan didn’t want to marry her
Dev – Harini’s brother who used to sing at Trincas restaurant
Ganesh – A young lawyer and Dev’s friend whom dev had appointed for their defence
Inspector Madhvan – Bombay police crime branch Gamadevi division
Sheroor – Manage of the Tivoli Gardens, the building where Krishnan used to live in Peddar Road
Mangal Das-  He used to work in Hotel Rani and was the one who had discovered the body of Krishnan
Nambiar- Coroner
Mansukhani – Pulic procecuter
Purshottam Haridas – The judge who was presiding over the case
Charandas- A taxi driver
Mrs Dastur – Neighbour of Krishnan
Superintendent Vishwanathan Ramanathan- Senior officer of Inspector Madhvan who had decided to solve the mystery before his retirement
Rohini – Ramanathan’s daughter

Nylon Rope by Sujatha is the first novel by this famous Tamil writer that i have the opportunity to read. I knew that tamil literature had a thriving pulp industry and i had enjoyed reading their translated versions in the anthology published by Blaft(Vol 1, Vol 2). So when i found out about this one i knew i had to buy it and i’m not regretting it. I would like to say that i had wished that most of this Tamil pulp literature is translated in Hindi so that i could devour it with more pleasure. Meanwhile, the English translation would do but i do hope that Westland soon brings out Hindi translations of these books too. We hindi speaking people  love our pulp reads, at least i do. 🙂 The translation in this book feels right although the people who have read the original in Tamil would be right one to say something about it.

Now coming to the book, Nylon Rope is a whodunit. A murder has been committed and they have to solve the mystery as to why the murder was committed and who was the killer. This is a good old police procedural which will keep you hooked to the book.

The novel has two parallel stories that go side by side. The reader gets to read excerpts from a diary of 18 year old girl called Sunanda. Now, it was easy for me to make the connection that this girl or people related to her were somehow responsible for murder. Who was Sunanda? What had happened to her(I had an inkling about it but i had to be sure.)? How was she connected to this case? These were the questions that made me kept reading the book.

The characters are believable. I liked the lawyer Ganesh. He has devil may care attitude and that was what i found interesting. I came to know by reading the blurb that he’s part of a detective cum lawyer duo Ganesh-Vasanth and i would love to read the other novels featuring him. Although, the blurb incorrectly mentions that it’s Ganesh who is trying to solve the mystery in this novel. This is not the case here.  His main motive in this novel is to save his friends’ necks and whether he’s able to do that or not is something which you’ll find out once you have read this book.

Apart from it i liked the character of Vishwanathan Ramnathan. He’s an experience cop and knows how to connect the dots. It was fun watching him solve the mystery which his juniors were not able to do. Also, there is a point where he corrects his junior who refers to a person from South as Madrasi. The way he does that was cool. He challenges him to pronounce the name of the fellow’s village correctly. I had a laugh while reading that because i was imagining myself there and i know i would have failed miserably.

I felt sad by coming to know about Sunanda and i know there are many women who go through with what she had to go through. I can only this without revealing the plot but i do hope that no women has to go through what Sunanda had to.

The only thing that i felt a little off in this novel was it’s end. I thought it was a little bit filmy although it reminded me of a case of Byomkesh Bakshi where he states that he’s Satyanveshi(seeker of the truth). It’s important for him to find out the truth even if the criminal escapes the law. He’ll regret it but he’ll be happy that at least he know what had happened. This zeal for finding out the truth was something i saw in Vishwanathan. Although the end was filmy but i have to say that i concurred with what Vishwanathan did. In reality would a policeman had done so without taking a bribe, i find that hard to digest or it may be my prejudice that’s making me think like that.

At the end i would say that if  you are looking for a enjoyable murder mystery, then you would not go wrong with this one. This one kept me entertained. I hope you’ll enjoy it too.

If you have read this book, what were your thoughts about it? Do tell me in the comments.

If you haven’t read this one then you can get it from the following links:
Nylon
Kindle