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    Necropolis
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    Necropolis
    Unavailable
    Necropolis
    Ebook290 pages5 hours

    Necropolis

    By Avtar Singh

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    "Someone is cutting off victims' fingers in New Delhi and vampires and lycans are suspects in this ambitious mix of detection and the supernatural from Singh."
    --Publishers Weekly

    "Sajan Dayal, a Delhi detective, pursues a serial (though nonlethal) collector of human fingers. Dayal's team encounters would-be vampires and werewolves, plus a woman named Razia who may or may not be centuries old."
    --Publishers Weekly, Spring 2016 Announcements

    "An intriguing mix of history, myth and the realities of contemporary New Delhi...Astonishing and satisfying."
    --Reviewing the Evidence

    "Superbly gothic...The novel is a compelling one and certain to be a great addition to courses on detective fiction and noir, especially given its focus on a city that has not necessarily or traditionally been attached to mystery and mayhem. Singh is giving places like Los Angeles and San Francisco a run for their money in this re-envisioning of the urban noir."
    --Asian American Literature Fans

    "Necropolis is a ravishing beauty of prose that is as sumptuous as it is gripping...Imagine a cocktail of V.S. Naipaul, Agatha Christie, Elmore Leonard, and E.M. Forster, and you have the essence of this haunting and ferociously charming novel."
    --Ken Bruen, author of Green Hell

    "I tore though Necropolis with great pleasure and a fair measure of unease. It's a grisly, wonderfully written novel that interweaves disparate genres and styles into a whole that satisfies thoroughly. As fine a crime novel as I've read in the last year."
    --Scott Phillips, author of The Ice Harvest

    "Avtar Singh's Necropolis is an ode to ancient, medieval, and Old Delhi, a romantic ballad that cuts across time, if not place, and melds features of classic detective fiction with those of the hard-boiled and roman noir in a style that is exquisitely the author's."
    --Sumana Mukherjee, Mint

    Necropolis follows Sajan Dayal, a detective in pursuit of a serial (though nonlethal) collector of fingers. He encounters would-be vampires and werewolves, and a woman named Razia who may or may not be centuries old. Guided by Singh's gorgeous and masterful writing, the novel peels back layers of a city in thrall to its past, hostage to its present, and bitterly divided as to its future. Delhi went from being an imperial capital to provincial backwater in a few centuries: the journey back to exploding commercial metropolis has been compressed into a few decades. Combining elements of crime, fantasy, and noir, Necropolis tackles the questions of origin, ownership, and class that such a revolution inevitably raises. The world of Delhi, the sweep of its history--its grandeur, grimness, and criminality--all of it comes alive in Necropolis.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAkashic Books
    Release dateJun 7, 2016
    ISBN9781617754586
    Unavailable
    Necropolis
    Author

    Avtar Singh

    Avtar Singh is an author and editor. His previous novel, The Beauty of These Present Things, was published by Penguin India. He has worked as an editor with Man's World, the Outlook Group, Time Out Delhi and The Indian Quarterly. He lives with his family in New Delhi.

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    Reviews for Necropolis

    4/5

    17 ratings9 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Sorry Librarything - I meant to review this a few months ago!Anyway, we have a story of a detictive, Sajan Dayal, who is following the mystery of someone who is cutting off fingers. With a junior detective, Smita, by his side. Dayal isn't exactly a dirty cop. But he isn't clean either. Its a world that is half new, half old, and corruption runs rampant. Smita is probably the only completely clean cop in this book - and she is fairly innocent.Along the way, Dayal meets a women who some claim to be immortal - a vampire. She seems to be involved somehow, but at the same time, off to side, observing. Her neighbors seem to afraid of her, and of course a relationship between Dayal and Raiza form. I especially like the setting - Delhi is another character and the most important one. Generally, I found the character to be dry, a bit characteristic. The story was mostly unforgettable- the author spent too much time on getting the setting right, that the larger story of the detective was not that good.Overall, there are better stories of this sort out there.
    • 5/5
      Received thru LibraryThings early reviewer. I found the book very enjoyable. I always like to read of foreign countries and this book contained a lot of this type of information. It was broken down into smaller stories which I liked and I definitely was surprised by the ending, Would definitely recommend this book.
    • 4/5
      One of the things I like about books set in countries other than my own is a chance to learn about other cultures. I'm glad that Necropolis, which I won through the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program, was written by a native of that country. Through his detective character, Sajan Dayal, Mr. Avtar Singh allows us to see Delhi as it is now and glimpses of its past.We're led through five cases, 'Summer Games,' 'Girl Stories,' 'Compromise,' 'Children in Spring,' and 'Necropolis'. When I was young I first read The Burning Court by John Dickson Carr. I forced myself to put it down about one or two a.m., but couldn't sleep. I turned the light back on and read the rest, even though it must have been four a.m. when I finished. Was Marie Stevens really a notorious poisoner who was executed in the 19th century or were there rational explanations for the strange things happening?Mr. Singh's Razia is as mysterious as Marie. We are offered a rational explanation and a supernatural one. Which is true?
    • 5/5
      I have to say that, while I greatly enjoyed the story (well, stories really, although all intertwined into a single arch), the greatest pleasure that I received while reading this book was in the culture and history of India, and, specifically, Delhi. Some things that are described as a matter of course caused some cognitive dissonance for me, as an American reader -- and that's a good thing. The author of this book definitely makes you feel as if you're walking the streets of New Delhi.
    • 4/5
      A fun and strange mystery book. It takes place in New Delhi and seems to give a peek in to a different country with very different 'norms' than those of us living in the US would recognize. I did enjoy reading the book and zipped right through it.Sajan is a detective in the New Delhi police, and we follow him as he tries to solve several different cases, most of which, in the end are somewhat related. Someone is running around cutting off fingers from men in the poorer reaches. Then he finds a young woman who claims to be immortal and has watched over Delhi for Centuries. Finally he is called in to find a child that was kiddnapped from a wealthy family.This fit very well with Akashic printings of Noir type stories and it was another great book. Noir mystery with a bit of the urban fantasy thrown in.
    • 4/5
      I would likely have given this book a 4 or 4 1/2 star review had I been more knowledgeable in terms of the history and culture of New Delhi. However Avtar Singh does a masterful job crafting a story I could still read and follow even though I may not fully understand some of the more subtle nuances associated with the city and culture. The immersion I did receive painted a pretty vivid picture of life in Delhi. My other complaint, and again this could be due to my lack of knowledge, was in relation to the "9-fingered men". I know there is a political/social message in there somewhere but I just failed to fully realize it or fully grasp it's significance. Had this novel taken place in NYC, my understanding wouldn't have been so stunted. Other than those complaints, the story was engaging, particularly since it seems to reinvent itself every couple chapters. It was like a TV show that has a season long arc (book long in this case) but has smaller chapters/episodes that fit into the overall narrative but are separate cases. The characters are fairly well drawn out and none feel like just cardboard cutouts. The imagery, locations, and even some of the overwhelming sense of old and new meshing together was well articulated and I had a real sense of being part of the story.
    • 3/5
      Ok, so don't let the middle of the road stars fool you -- this is an excellently well written book. It's an astonishing portrait of Delhi and of a very specific time. It's also a compelling, noir-ish mystery with intertwining, episodic vignettes of violence and political manipulation.

      Because it is all of those things, it is not really to my taste -- I found the drifting, nonlinear storytelling to be intriguing, but not satisfying.
    • 2/5
      I received a FREE copy of this book in exchange for an HONEST review. I don’t inflate ratings…I just rate them how I personally liked/disliked them - aka – my opinion...which means you might feel differently. Check out my other ratings and see if your “tastes” match mine.For some reason it always seems that MOST books people receive as free review copies get excellent reviews…even if they aren’t so excellent. I’m not sure if this is because people feel they “owe” something for the free book or what. That's not me...Anyways:This novel is an easy read. This is not a complement unless you just want something to read to pass the time on the plane/train and then toss it in the trash not really caring if you every finish it. It is a very liner story with no surprises, no twists and no REAL crime solving/detective work involved. I’ll try not to give away too much and ruin the very thin/weak story line. Basically there is a deputy commissioner of police, his assistant and another “up and coming police officer” who run around (and get made fools of a lot) trying to solve a few crimes in a corrupt political environment (this novel is set in India but this type of story could take place in any number of countries around the world). It was almost like watching the news about a few mildly interesting crimes that eventually got solved but the author decided to throw in some sex and vampires (ooohhhh) in hopes of spicing up a dull piece of fiction. The criminals were basically handed to the deputy commissioner by one main character and many minor ones. He kept getting messages similar to this: “Oh my nephew knows who did this”…or “If you would have asked sooner, I would have told you who the criminal was. Come to my house tonight and I will give him to you…”I am fairly certain that the author modeled the main character around what he himself would like to be and was trying to live vicariously through him…always praising the main character for his “cool under fire”, the way all the women wanted him, etc, etc. It was like listening to someone brag about themselves only all of it was lies. I felt like I was reading a cheap imitation of a James Church “Inspector O” novel (set in North Korea) except unlike Church’s main character (Inspector O), Singh’s main character (can’t even recall his name at this point) was thin and shallow.Overall – 2 STARS.
    • 4/5
      Avtar Singh’s Necropolis is a masterpiece of crime fiction. Set in New Delhi, Singh’s writing broods on the long history and dark shadows of the city while simultaneously celebrating the inexorable flow of time and the joys of life in the city. The story follows DCP Sajan Dayal and his deputies, Kapoor and Smita, as they investigate a crime wave in which someone is stealing fingers from people in the night. The case leads them into the political intrigues that run the city and have always been the beating heart of New Delhi. Sajan meets a woman named Razia, who may be an eight hundred year old immortal princess, though her true identity and the mystery surrounding her are less important than the effect she has on Sajan and Delhi politics. Singh writes with a haunting quality, simultaneously conveying a nihilistic sense of people’s role as cogs in a larger narrative while suggesting that the roles they play in this city matter just as much as those who came before and on whose graves they built. The authors Singh’s writing resembles most are Raymond Chandler and Jo Nesbø, but such a comparison is reductive because each bring a unique view of the world that revels in contrasts.