Book review: The Jasmine Murders by Roopa Unnikrishnan
Blood in the boondocks
In her debut work, Roopa Unnikrishnan crafts an interesting murder mystery, positions it in the early Sixties, sets it in a deceptively ordinary TN small town. Of course, what we see is not what we get, and the place is a cauldron teeming with age-old taboos, seething communal tensions, secrets and lies, dirty deeds done in the dark, all waiting for that lit matchstick to go off.
Into this potential maelstrom arrive two Malayalees: the new ASP Jayan and his whip-smart bride of 40 days, Uma. The couple haven’t settled into their quarters before the first of a series of calamitous events fetch up literally at their doorstep, a man carrying the severed head of his wife. It soon transpires that Vikraman had decapitated his wife himself, singing the old infidelity tune.
After which, incidents break out like a rash all over Manamadurai; a robbery at a bank manager`s house, a robbery at the local zamindar`s mansion, another decapitated body, this time of an unidentified male. Running simultaneously to this trail is Uma `s exploration of the place, it`s Ladies Club members, the town`s two medical men. Both trails meet of course, and end up with Uma being of immense help to her policeman husband as he tries to solve the jasmine murders.
This is a murder mystery which does not pepper the plot with red herrings , and neither does it get the reader guessing as the story unspools quite organically. Here, we are presented with a series of incidents, a series of small reveals all working up to the big one, and we have to do is follow the prominent dots.
The denouement is as dramatic as it gets, with Jayan`s chase of the perpetrator leading him to Dhanushkodi just as a cyclone hits the place, leaving death and devastation in its watery wake.
The author does a skillful job of character delineation, telling us of Uma and Jayan`s Malayalee roots and way of life, juxtaposed with the overweening patriarchy that stalks places like Manamadurai. If at times Uma over-reaches, it`s fine because her husband soon gets used his new wife`s assertive ways.
The one thing that struck this reviewer, was that the book reads like a first draft at times. The mother-daughter dynamic between Uma and her mother is not explored too deeply, and is dispensed with in a pat fashion. It’s the same with Uma and her brood of elder brothers; the reader isn’t sure if they bullied her or she ruled over them.
A gruesome package is placed on a table and the sentence ends with mention of the damp thud it made against the floor. Somebody gestures at a locked metal almirah…only, they are sitting in a jeep at the time. A character sits at a card table one minute and is found reading a magazine and sipping tea the next. Another character tells himself he needs some strong coffee to get him through the day and the next minute, is found drinking tea.
The Jasmine Murders, An Uma-Jayan Mystery.By Roopa Unnikrishnan.Aleph Books.231 pages. Rs 799
https://www.thehindu.com/books/book-review-the-jasmine-murders-author-roopa-unnikrishnan-1960s-tamil-nadu/article70722072.ece
This ran in The Hindu`s Literary Review of 15 March 2026.
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