There’s a morgue, a partly decomposed corpse, traces of pink nail polish, a yellow jersey — enough to intrigue you to read further. Next, you are drawn into the conference room of a Mumbai newspaper office just as the weekly meeting is about to start.
We are introduced to the protagonist — reluctant lifestyle reporter, 30-something Avantika Pandit. And she’s a smart mouth alright — a trait that lands her in the most unpleasant situations, almost on a regular basis.
Swear You Won’t Tell is the story of a mysterious death and takes us through the lives, past and present, of the heroine and her schoolmates. The author probably draws on her own experiences here because the flashback has a very convincing ‘lived-in’ feel.
The newsroom in the book is more like a movie-version newsroom from the 80s or 90s, where editors bark out orders to reporters, making them nearly wet their pants. My mind immediately went back to the 2008 Hollywood blockbuster, Marley & Me , with Alan Arkin’s surly editor almost perfectly mirrored in Avantika’s “thin, balding and middle-aged” boss.
For the most part, the plot is held firmly together by the doings and undoings of the scrappy protagonist. Her dry wit and fastidious approach to the mystery keep us hooked. There’s also a potential love angle involving a handsome man with a secret agenda.
But a larger mystery takes shape in the reader’s mind. Why, oh why, did the author and her editors feel the need to pepper nearly every chapter with inane footnotes?
On nearly everything from matrimonial sites and helmets to Satyanarayan puja . They are super distracting; like finding hair in your food in the middle of a sumptuous meal. There, I said it!
Perhaps in the sequel, the author will consider leaving out the footnotes? The book has enough cliffhangers — in the form of two potential suitors and yet another mystery — to warrant a follow-up title. I wouldn’t mind reading it.
