Death in the Air

‘Glamorous, gripping, absolutely heaps of fun. I loved this.’—Lucy Foley, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Guest List and The Paris Apartment

"Unexpected delights await on every page of Ram Murali’s impressive and captivating debut. Crisp as a gin and tonic and delightfully wicked, this smart, smart novel delivers a sophisticated, subversive murder mystery set in the highest stratosphere of the international idle rich. I had to force myself not to binge it in one night so I could savor it like the rare and exquisite meal that it is." —Kevin Kwan, New York Times bestselling author of Crazy Rich Asians

The White Lotus meets Knives Out meets Crazy Rich Asians in this devilishly entertaining debut novel: both a sophisticated locked-room mystery in the tradition of Agatha Christie, and a provocative literary whodunit for the twenty-first century.

Ro Krishna is the American son of Indian parents, educated at the finest institutions, equally at home in London’s poshest clubs and on the squash court, but unmoored after he is dramatically forced to leave a high-profile job under mysterious circumstances. He decides it’s time to check in for some much-needed R&R at Samsara, a world-class spa for the global cosmopolitan elite nestled in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas. A person could be spiritually reborn in a place like this. Even a very rich person.

But a person��or several—could also die there. Samsara is the Sanskrit word for the karmic cycle of death and rebirth, after all. And as it turns out, the colorful cast of characters Ro meets—including a misanthropic politician; an American movie star preparing for his Bollywood crossover debut; a beautiful heiress to a family jewel fortune that barely survived Partition; and a bumbling white yogi inexplicably there to teach meditation—harbors a murderer among them. Maybe more than one.

As the death toll rises, Ro, a lawyer by training and a sleuth by circumstance, becomes embroiled in a vicious world under a gilded surface, where nothing is quite what it seems . . . including Ro himself. Death in the Air is a brilliant, teasing mystery from a remarkable new talent.  


Genre: Mystery

"Twisty and absorbing, Death in the Air is a knockout mystery with a dry, dark humour all its own. It has endless glamour in the old sense of the word: as a sinister enchantment, casting a spell." - Flynn Berry

"A warm broth of Golden Age mystery (both Agatha Christie and Richard Osman would be proud)... Evocative, provocative, and very, very fun." - A J Finn

"Glamorous, gripping, absolutely heaps of fun. I loved this." - Lucy Foley

"Unexpected delights await on every page of Ram Murali's impressive and captivating debut. Crisp as a gin and tonic and delightfully wicked, this smart, smart novel delivers a sophisticated, subversive murder mystery set in the highest stratosphere of the international idle rich. I had to force myself not to binge it in one night so I could savor it like the rare and exquisite meal that it is." - Kevin Kwan

"Convincingly captures the milieu of the uber rich, a world in which consequences only exist on a sliding scale, depending on who you know and how much you can pay... Fizzes with ambition, managing to be both showy and subversive... a fun, thought-provoking book - a commentary on greed, cultural appropriation and the peculiar malaise of the wealthy - a daring debut." - Nii Ayikwei Parkes

"A romp of a whodunit, poking fun at the uber wealthy whilst calmly meditating on both the horror of Partition and identity in a globalized world. I rattled through it. Ro is a very charming lead character indeed!" - Charlotte Vassell

"A stunning, sophisticated, scalpel-sharp murder mystery. Powerful, fun and hugely rewarding. Immensely impressive." - Chris Whitaker