Book Review: Killing Time In DELHI by Ravi Shankar Etteth

Book Cover: 

The book “Killing Time in Delhi” has a sensuous lady of its cover. With a butterfly tattoo on its back and wearing a Japanese theme dress and holding a hand fan makes us think the connection between her and Delhi.

Story & its Characters:

This story rolls around an elite Delhi lad Chaitanya who is called as Charlie in his circle. He lives in famous Delhi area and has worthy home and business. Charlie does not take life seriously until one night the consequences start turning hostile to him.

Charlie is surprised by character Mandira called as Mandy and her charisma. Mandy and her partner Swami do things which Charlie does not like at time but has no choice as he himself falls in trouble at a party and only Mandy helps him out at that time. Charlie sees his life coming to full circle at his farmhouse and is surprised how Mandy knows each detail of ancestor’s tale.

Mandy is a woman with all the wit and charm to meet Charlie. Charlie tries best to stay away from her charm, and to work with his senses but fails each time and falls for Mandy. Mandy wins a readers heart at end.

Charlie also loses her best employee Sheena in this trouble. Charlie is about to loose everything to Mandy or he is actually winning by coming out clean from the deadly nights.

Swami is mysterious character and always says ‘By Shiva the smoky dude’ whenever he is in story frame. He is loyal to Mandy and makes Charlie nervous by his presence.

Inspector Nick, the character you will never like to see in a real life. He is portrayed a negative character and is quite irritating to Charlie.

What to look in this mysterious book:

·      How Charlie makes his way out from the night that has killing spree in Delhi?

·      Does Mandy handover Charlie his life back to normal or makes it uneven for him to breath?

·      Is Inspector Nick leaves Charlie to himself or amends law in his favour to win a big amount?

·      Does Charlie employees Chow & Sheena be loyal to him till end or part ways in this crisis?

Plus points of this book:

·      The author Ravi Shankar Etteth has weaved the story in such a manner that each strand falls in right place.

·      Characters are so well defined, as a reader I could relate with Charlie frustration and Mandy cunningness.

·      The twists are appropriate with the timing of the story.

·      What I liked the most is the end, though all things falls at place, author was in no rush to end it in a paragraph or two.

·      The end is so perfect that a mystery could have.

What I looked more:

This book could be distributed in chapters with great titles. Author Etteth is so excellent at crafting and describing things I would like to see the titles of each chapter too.

This would have added more charm to the twists in the stories.

Final Word:

Grab this mysterious/ suspense thriller for yourself and get to know the elite Delhi and their slang from author’s point of view. One can expect the full twists handled with care that makes the story to shine. Though it is has murder mystery but the mystery of Mandy and the consequences of Charlie finding things about himself are quite interesting.

Rating - 4/5

About The Author:

RAVI SHANKAR ETTETH is a Delhi-based journalist, satirist, graphic designer and author. He has been the editorial cartoonist of Indian Express, creative director of Observer Group of Publications, editor at India Today and Sunday Standard, and CEO and editor-in-chief of Voice of India and Millionaire.

In 1996, Etteth published his first book of short stories, The Scream of the Dragonflies. Subsequently, he published five more titles—The Tiger By The River (2002), The Village of Widows (2004), The Gold of Their Regrets (2009), The Book of Shiva (2016) and The Brahmin (2018). He is now a columnist and consulting editor at New Indian Express.

Book Details

Book Name: Killing Time In DELHI

Author Name: Ravi Shankar Etteth

Genre: Fiction Contemporary.

Publication: Westland Publications

Cover: Hard Cover

Price: 599

Available: Amazon with price 395

I am thankful to WritersMelon and the author for sending me a copy of the book in exchange of a honest review.

This book review is also a part of Write Tribe Reading Challenge, I select the prompt number 12 - A book on crime solving for the month of March.
Read all other book reviews by various readers here. 

Please note this is not paid review, all the views expressed in this post are my personal.

@Sonal