Ritual

‘Uttaran Das Gupta veers away from the classic Bengali detective novel to reveal the sleazy, seamy underbelly of the City of Joy. The new classic: Kolkata noir’ MADHULIKA LIDDLE

‘I finished reading Ritual in one sitting. It’s a literary thriller whose energy derives as much from what-next as from what-if. Children in Das Gupta’s world are killed, and their hearts scooped out – I felt like I’d had my heart scooped out by his gusty novel’ SUMANA ROY

When the body was found, the heart was missing. Someone had cut it out.
Calcutta is in political turmoil and it is turning violent. It is also home to Vasant Sena, a religious cult with a charismatic leader and militant devotees, engaged in drug-fuelled sex rituals. As bodies of girls, their hearts cut of their chests, start appearing all over Calcutta, ACP Ashutosh and his deputy Pradeep are assigned the case. Soon, they find themselves spiralling into a mesh of double faces and blind alleys, even as the machinery of the state and the police turn against them. Can they catch the killer before the killer catches them?