Valet Reader

Six Suspects by Vikas Swarup

Whether you know it or not you most likely are already familiar with Mr. Vikas Swarup (you may actually know him by his Hindi name, विकास स्वरूप). His first book Q & A was published in 2005 and was subsequently turned into a movie. Take a guess at the movie, come on. Ok, since I can’t hear you or know what you’re saying I’ll give you the answer. Initially released on November 12, 2008 his novel was adapted into the movie Slumdog Millionaire which went on to win 8 academy awards in 2009. See, I told you you were familiar with him.

Although I did not read Q & A, I am very pleased that I have read Six Suspects. It is quite easy to see from this, his second book, that the same man also wrote the book that would turn into Slumdog.

Now, let’s not pretend that the novels are similar though. There are many stylistics elements which are similar, the language and imagery are pretty much on par and the fact that it’s a compelling, interesting story set in India doesn’t hurt either. But where it does differ is that unlike Slumdog, Six Suspects provides a vision of India through multiple sets of eyes, it is a murder mystery and you really don’t know who to root for.

Six Suspects is basically a game of clue that you can’t play. As the title clearly states there is a crime, a murder, and there are six people who are suspected of the murder. Let’s go through the characters, you’ve got Shabnam the actress as Miss Scarlet, Jagganath Rai the victims father as Colonel Mustard, Mohan Kumar, the beaurcrat as Professor Plum, Munna, the phone thief as Mr. Green, as for Eketi the tribesman and Larry Page the American there are no clue equals. As for the weapons in this game of clue, there is only one, a gun, but there are six different guns so thats almost clue like. And lastly, the rooms, I’m gonna go ahead and say that the six separate stories are the equivalent of the different rooms.

The layout and readability of the book is awkward and different. But, awkward and different in a good way, if that’s possible. The first thing the reader is introduced to is the murder itself. How, where and when it occurred. Next Swarup introduces us to each of the suspects. He does so methodically by devoting an average of 12 pages for each character and giving us some background on them. Not only this, but at this point the reader is also introduced to the way in which the book is written. And by that I mean each of the characters has a different voice or a different way of telling their story. For example, the actress is written in diary form, quite different from the way Mr. Rai’s story is told which is through a series of dialogue’s he has on the phone. It’s pretty unique and actually pretty fun. Following the introductions you get right into the “motives”. Again, each character has their own chapter. These chapters were incredibly intricate and investigative. I did though think that a few of them were just a bit too long as there were couple in there that just flat out dragged on. From motives you get to “evidence” where the style of individuals having individual chapters continues. These chapters are short which is nice and provides exactly what the title says it does, the evidence. The last section “solution” is pretty amusing. It’s basically a play-by-play, but of what I’m not going to say. Lastly you get the “confession” and finally find out just who it was that killed Vicky Rai.

Now that I’ve bored you by telling how the book is written I’m going to provide you with my only negative perspective regarding this book. I’m getting kind of tired of predominantly getting only one view of India. Yes, there are “six” views in this book from six different characters but at the end of the day you are still only being provided with the perception that India is only dirt, grime, corruption and slums. Even though I’ve never been to India I find that to be a bit offensive. In essence, what Swarup has managed to do is put all the stereotypes one may associate with India and put them in one big pot. Does that ruin the book for me though? No, it didn’t and most likely it won’t ruin it for you either. I guess I just felt the need to express that.

Obviously given Swarup’s success with Slumdog this novel will most likely be turned into a film. Word on the street is that the rights were bought up ages ago and that it’s actually slated to come out in 2011. America will once again be indoctrinated with bollywood fever.

(On a side note: Having nothing to do with “Suspects” at all I wanted to share this video with you. Believe it or not someone actually did cheat and win Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in England. Amazingly enough their system was rediculously simple and successful, until of course the morons were caught. There a total of 8 videos and it’s pretty long, I did watch all of it, just thought you should be warned.)