Death in the Air
By Ram Murali
Allen & Unwin
After losing his job, Ro Krishna follows a recommendation from his friends to spend some time at Samsara, an exclusive Ayurvedic spa retreat in the Indian Himalayas. The natural and holistic treatments for body and soul include meditation, yoga, massages, saunas, counseling and drinking lots of tea.
Ro, an over-qualified lawyer with degrees from Oxford, Sorbonne and Columbia who doesn’t practice law, finds himself in a select group of people – “a global class of pretty dubious rich people who seem to spend their lives going from spa to spa.”
There are quite a lot of moving pieces to keep track of as affairs, blackmail and hidden trails are revealed. There is also a spiritual element. Guests take a day to attend a ceremony to honour the River Goddess Ganga at a neighbouring town.
Ro is also trying to get in touch with some of his Tamil heritage and is offended that the Visiting Light is a foreigner giving talks as if he is an expert on Indian wisdom. He sees some of the unwanted effects of English colonisation.
When one of the guests becomes involved with one of the trainers, Ro cites homophobia, for example, is a result of English morals and not because of anything in Hindu teachings. “Homophobia is, purely and simply, letting the colonizers win.”
An undercurrent of karma flows through the story. Ro is a great believer in karma and wants the person who got him fired and was now taking credit for all his work to get a good dose of it. He also wonders whether karma might need some help.
As the ‘Ten Days to a New You’ count down, the narrative twists and turns and, when one of the guests is found dead, the guests realise they need to find a killer among their fold. Just follow the karma trail …
Lezly Herbert
