X SquareX Square by Srinu Pandranki
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Srinu Pandranki’s X2 is a novel made out of a screenplay he has written, a fact which becomes obvious as we skim through the initial pages of his first book. The premise is introduced, the characters are drawn into the plot and the environment firmly established, all within the first chapter. There isn’t any unwanted flab here and it stays the same way throughout the book, which is one of the redeeming characteristics of it. I took only a couple of sittings to finish it, so it is a kind of a page turner in its own way.

Three murders seemingly unrelated to each other disrupt the peace and sanity of Palo Alto, and the homicide department has rounded the suspects and wants them to be brought to the book. But, Shreya Dutt finds out eventually that everything is not what it seems to be, when she starts working with Detective Holmes(not THAT one of course. This one is named Kevin), rather unwillingly at first. So there you have it. A cop who doesn’t want the detective to intrude and help her, working with a reluctant detective troubled with his past, fighting his own demons. The circle of stereotypes is complete with a superior officer who wants to shut the case soon. Together they interview the suspects and each of them have no clue as to what happened on the nights of the murder and could provide no clues or alibis to prove their innocence or guilt.

If you are familiar with the genre, there is not much that is unexpected here. You can find all the clichés that are associated with the whodunit genre and the narrative includes each of them with a self-congratulatory glee. The language is barely functional and devoid of any style, which is fine since this is an attempt at genre fiction, and any cribbing about the lack of literary merit, is to miss the point entirely. Though the book isn’t very long, it certainly should have done better with another edit, since the grammatical errors are too glaring and can get in the way of the narrative, if one is too fussy about one’s English.

I have never been to Palo Alto, and hence can’t comment on the author’s description of the city and the peaceful life the book gloats upon, but I think the book could have been set up in any place in the world. There is no way one could guess the ending since the mystery is resolved by means of Deus ex machina of sorts. Though the title is relevant to the mystery, it has not been set up initially, leaving no chance for the readers to guess what was coming.

If you are looking for a lukewarm murder mystery which does not demand much of your time or thought, this is the ideal one. You probably won’t be any more intelligent than you were earlier, nor your world view would broaden as you read through it, but when you consider the alternative ways to spend your time on a boring train journey, this doesn’t seem to be half as bad. 

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