The Night After

'The Night After' is the first story of the novella anthology series that follows veteran detective Hari Shankar Satyanarayanan and his sidekick Ganesh Bose. The narrative deals with the murder of Paromita just after the night of her wedding. Paromita is married to Sujit, the son of Mr. Sen, a retired army general who is suppose to contest the parliamentary elections as a candidate of the ruling party. Hari faces tremendous difficulties and corruptions within his own department as the ruling party tries to control the outcome of the investigation. Hari is denied of forensic reports and any other possible help from the department to solve the case at hand but he decides to go forward with it regardless of the impediments. Ganesh Bose a young officer who worked for the narcotics division is transferred to the homicide department and is assigned under the wing of the veteran detective. Without proper forensic report, Hari tries to work the case from scratch. He is convinced that even when the forensic report arrives the results would be distorted that would mislead the investigation. Ganesh tries to learn the way of the homicide department but often disagrees to Hari’s methods of investigation. Hari eats almost everything he possibly can and makes life difficult for the figure conscious gym going Ganesh. The investigation takes a rough road in the middle when Ganesh ends up sleeping with the strongest suspect of the case. Things take several twists and turns as blasphemous information keeps coming in the forefront. Everybody seems like a possible murder suspect as the story unfolds and to add to that the commissioner threatens to remove Hari from the case as he gets close to the truth. The story is set in present Calcutta and focuses on the corruption of the Calcutta homicide division. The novella is divided in small chapters and in its treatment is an old school whodunit that tells the story a grumpy old sleuth and his young sidekick.