Nobody Lights a Candle

The day after Holi. Former SHO Adhirath Jatav, recently dismissed from the Delhi Police, happens upon a murder the body of a young woman, her insides split open, is found inside a farmhouse on the outskirts of New Delhi. A chance encounter with the woman’s mother clears some mystery she was from a neighbouring village, a beautician and a presumed prostitute, with a string of fake names. Her poverty and social status had made her an outcast her death is considered not a tragedy but an inconvenience.

While the police investigate half-heartedly, Adhirath finds himself drawn to the case. He feels a connection with this woman who, much like him and his ‘untouchable’ wife, had had to claw her way through life to secure a place for herself in society. Over time, Adhirath grows protective of the dead woman her reputation and her dignity and determined to find her killer.

Translated from the Hindi original Hatya Nobody Lights a Candle is a precise and nuanced meditation on the persistence of age-old biases and structural violence in a deeply unequal country. As sensitive, even tender, as it is hard-hitting, this is a gripping read crime fiction with heart and purpose.