Category: Fiction
Publisher: Rupa Publications India (forthcoming)
Rights: World rights available (excluding Indian subcontinent)
Founder of a highly valued ed-tech start-up, Karan Chopra is young, charismatic, famous, and unpredictable. He is also missing, last seen at his birthday party seven days ago.
Investigators at the Central Bureau of Investigation review testimonies from guests at the party where he was last seen. They focus on four people close to Karan.
Karan’s wife Maya is rich, good-looking, bored and caught in a loveless marriage that she portrays as anything but. Is that all she’s hiding?
Abhinav is chief operating officer in Karan’s company. He is ambitious, arrogant, aggressive, and in love, just not with his own wife.
Mohit recently joined Karan’s company. Why did Karan fire him, and why was he at the party?
Venkatesh is one of Karan’s oldest friends. Why did he leave so early?
The book is divided into five parts, each part dedicated to a question that the investigators pose to these four individuals. Each chapter describes events from the point of view of one of these four characters. As these testimonies progress, inconsistencies emerge, none explaining why Karan is missing but each throwing up more questions. The investigators find themselves grappling with murder, drugs, corporate espionage and what appears to be a crime of passion.
The author: Rohithari Rajan