Book review: The Scratch and Sniff Chronicles by Hemangini Dutt Majumder

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A delicious twist of Bangla Goth

This debut novel takes the old trope of Bengali Gothic literature, contemporizes it deftly, and serves up a whodunnit that is some parts funny, some parts macabre, all parts engaging.

We are dropped without ceremony into the lives of the Chaterges (yes, you read  that spelling right) a woman named Basanti fondly called Fishy (a twist on pishi) by her adopted daughter Ellora/Laura and her orphaned niece Olympia/ Ollie, the latter named after a Manet painting of the same name. The cigar-smoking Fishy belongs to an old wealthy family with a mansion in Chandannagar outside Kolkata; she is currently locked in a property battle with her widowed stepmother, a larger- than- life figure going by the flamboyant name of Labanga Latika, and no fond nicknames here, thank you.

Into this potent mix goes in several nuggets of side interest. Like Labanga Latika`s paramour a shifty priest called Shankar, the archetypal poor, meek cousin Rupa, a chemistry teacher Danish Mirza with a penchant for fresh mints and for Ollie, several cooks and maids all with some studied eccentricity or the other, and a couple of cops, Deputy Superintendent Pramanik with a scientific temper, acting as  perfect foil to his junior Sujoy Halder whose sympathies seem to align with Labanga Latika and Co.

A skeleton is found at the base of a magnificent banyan tree  known to the family as Le Patriarche, on the property;  soon enough, other requisite dead bodies pop up, including that of a crow which might or might not have been poisoned.

While the mystery chugs along nicely, sometimes turning hilariously inchoate, it is the roster of characters that make up the meat of the story. Each and every one of them has been developed neatly, including the narrator who is the spirit of a dead woman (no spoilers here). There`s Ollie the sommelier and beverage consultant,  with her sharply developed nose giving her an extraordinary perception and sensitivity to smells of all kinds, thus enabling her  to inhale much information at any given time; I can really smell…you see, in a way I`m like Batman. Minus the butler, she says facetiously, at one point.

there`s Laura who had previously been an underaged maid at the Neelbari mansion, adopted by Fishy and is now a promising architect; there`s Rupa`s jam and murabba business, Labanga Latika`s nascent political ambitions, the family cat Habeas Corpus , Habey for short, a couple of sharp-tongued  and rapidly exponential aunts of Fishy`s,  Tuni Pishi and Muni Pishi.  At one point, we hear Ollie`s late father telling his wife there wasn’t much difference between a sushi roll and a maach bhaat roll, the shorshe or mustard factor adequately replaced by the wasabi. The reader chuckles at these Wodehousian characters (like when Fishy discloses to us that her aunts aren’t gentlemen) and their shenanigans,  even as they try to solve the murder mystery at the heart of the story.

Significantly feminist, too

The feminist twist is subtle but unmistakable, with the women in the story holding matters firmly by the reins, even when they unwittingly become victims at times. And in this story packed with women, it is significant that not one of them shows any sign of squeamishness or turns to jelly when matters start to become grisly.

The novel is full of atmosphere, with descriptions of the gargoyles, angels and demons at Neelbari, the collection of ceramic figurines in the formal parlour, the Gombaj Ghor. The novel is also very funny, as when Danish marks a chemistry paper,  getting scathingly personal as he seems to be on the receiving end of a rejection from Ollie but quickly changes it when things don’t look downright damaging to his heart. Or Halder connecting Ollie`s use of the word `poisson` in conversation with a French friend with poison as murder weapon.

Pointing out little editorial missteps like way too many commas in the wrong place, too many terms in apostrophes, a couple of awkwardly worded sentences,  some Bengali dishes explained, most not, and a denoument that is almost entirely expository writing,  might come off as pettyfogging.  Because overall, this is a delightful read.

The Scratch and Sniff Chronicles by Hemangini Dutt Majumder. Olive Turtle/Niyogi Books. 332 pages. Rs 495

https://www.newindianexpress.com/lifestyle/books/2025/Oct/05/fishy-business-and-family-feuds

This ran in in TNIE`s New Sunday Express Magazine of 5 October 2025.