How would you react if you were told that your meal had come from the same kitchen in which a corpse was cooked? Man can stoop to inhuman depths in crimes of passion, and blinded with such rage, a man did just that – killed his wife and tried to burn her body in the kitchen of a hotel. I had an occasion to visit that particular hotel just a few months before the incident; and was impressed with the high level of security there. I had seen the bags of the guests being opened in full public view, vehicles being inspected thoroughly, and everybody being made to pass through a metal detector. That hotel - Ashok Yatri Nivas - no longer exists, but it was quite popular in its heydays.
The Tandoor Murder is written by Maxwell Pereira, the Additional Commissioner of Police in charge of the case in 1995. The book has an easy flow and keeps the reader glued throughout. Rather than being a boring chronicle of events, it is a juicy narration in excellent language. The author has been bold enough to take names, sharing his opinion liberally. Read this: "Sadly, whether it is the Congress in power or the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance(NDA) government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the taint of criminality on the Indian Parliament remains. . It is worth noting here that of the alleged offenses of India’s wealthy and powerful, only a small fraction find its way into the courts. Politicians are especially adept at silencing witnesses and most police investigations of their crimes yield’no prosecutable evidence’."
Or, "It was hard not to conclude that the judiciary took quite a different approach to a powerful criminal than to one from the less affluent classes – regardless of the crime."
It is not a novel, but is no less than a crime thriller. Recommended for serious social reading.