Lalli was preparing to die.” Opening Kalpana Swaminathan’s latest Lalli mystery, this was certainly not the first line I expected to read. It took great effort not to flip through to the end to see if she survived. And I am glad I held out!
For those who came in late, Lalli is a former detective with the Mumbai police force. Now that she has retired, Lalli looks into cases that pique her interest and her usual companions are her niece Sita, Inspector Shukla, her protégé Savio, and the forensic expert Dr. Q, who also has a fondness for rare books.
In the initial stages of Raagam Taanam Pallavi , Lalli is frail and recovering from illness. And this worries everyone from Sita, Savio and Inspector Shukla to all the inhabitants of her apartment building. Lalli suspects that she may have committed a murder. Her only clue is a piece of music, specifically a kriti by Muthuswami Dikshitar, one of Carnatic music’s legendary trinity.
As Lalli and Sita set about unravelling this clue, there is a murder in Subbu Bhagavathar’s house. From here, the reader is taken on a dizzying ride that coalesces the past and the present. How is Lalli’s neighbour Ramachandran involved? What does the myth of Murugan, the six-headed Tamil god, have to do with the murder? How is the death of Mani Vadiya’s daughter long, long ago connected with this murder?
Swaminathan plays with the reader expertly, laying out multiple trails that lead this way and that. But the resolution brings them together beautifully. The only false note, to me, was Lalli’s accusation of murder directed at herself — it seems a bit overblown when seen against the denouement. While the book takes a while to get into its stride — the initial pages detailing Lalli’s illness and the efforts of her team to bring her back drag a bit — a patient reader will be rewarded. And for those worried about their lack of knowledge of Carnatic music or aspects of Tamil culture, a glossary at the end tells you all you need to know.
Raagam Taanam Pallavi; Kalpana Swaminathan, Speaking Tiger, ₹499
krithika.r@thehindu.co.in
