A well written murder/mystery set in the city of Chennai .where Pedro Lanzares, a Tamil poet, has been murdered. The protagonist is not the usual police inspector but a journalist, Harsha Devnath. I Ioved the descriptions of India and the political and religious forces at play. The account of Harsha's personal life, including his friendships, add further interest to the story. I read this as a standalone but it is book 4 of a series. I will now be reading the other books in order to follow Harsha's career from the beginning.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Harsha is a journalist in India who is tasked with following and covering the murder of a local poet who was found with a poem in his mouth.

It had a lot of engaging characters that were easy to keep up with and had distinct voices and personalities. Their relationships/ties to each other were very developed and entertaining to read. The story had a really unique and compelling touch to it by hadvng a journalist be the main character instead of the typical agent. The few chapters that were told in the POV of the assassin added an extra intense layer to the story. The story had fascinating poems scattered through.

I hadn’t realized this is book 4 in the series until I had finished reading this one. I will be reading previous books in this series since this one was really good. There was enough information about each character given for this to be enjoyed without having read any of the prior books.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.