Kismet Pariah

Author : Ashish Suhas Sahasrabudhe

Pune. 23:41 Hrs.

The lockdown has emptied the streets. Inspector Vishwas Khare is called to a house where a dead man appears to have simply fallen asleep—his hands loose, shirt neatly pressed, nothing disturbed, everything too carefully arranged.

Then Khare finds a message to the man's mother, speaking of two faiths that were never meant to share the same roof, while a fresh tattoo appears to offer another clue.

The case looks simple. Khare doesn't trust simple cases.

A locked phone takes him from Pune to a forgotten birthplace in Solapur—and towards a reclusive painter whose work has remained a mystery for twenty-two years: Kismet Pariah, a name that means both fate and outcast.

A gallery. A minister. A laboratory. A jeweller. Each lead takes Khare deeper into a story that began long before the murder, until the dead man's identity comes into doubt, his mother knows more than she should, and someone has gone to great lengths to keep the painter—and his past—buried.

Khare has thirty-one hours to find the truth.

Because some cases end, while some are only ever buried.