You’ll like Swati Kaushal’s Lethal Spice if you like murder mysteries. Or cooking. Or reality TV. Or jungles.

In her second Niki Marwah novel, the former IIM Calcutta girl has covered all the bases. It’s a whodunit all right and that forms the centrepiece but there’s much more to entertain the reader when the police work sags.

Lethal Spice [Hachette India, Rs 350] opens with a dramatic death and widespread panic at the historic Gaiety Theatre in Shimla, which has been experiencing a record low crime rate under the watchful eyes of its smart and sexy superintendent of police, Niki Marwah. The deceased is a judge on the hit reality TV show Hot Chef, where culinary pursuits are secondary to cunning and cleavage.

Show judge Mala Joseph has dropped dead in the middle of a “tasting session” and the six contestants, Mala’s fellow judge and creator of the show, the presenter, the producers, the kitchen manager, the tea boy — anyone could be the culprit.

Or it could be suicide. But then why would the beautiful, sweet, generous and talented young chef whose showbiz career was just taking off kill herself? Well, as you turn the pages, you’ll find out almost everyone has a dirty secret or two in their belly. There have also been these accidents and mix-ups on the sets that are far too frequent to be a coincidence.

Apart from unravelling the mystery, Kaushal offers a peek into the behind-the-scenes of reality television — who are the people who audition for such shows, the pressures, the highs, the hiccups and of course the jealousies and rivalries.

Into this simmering broth of murder, mishaps and mistrust, Kaushal throws in a Survivor-style challenge in the forests of Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh and a grand finale in Goa.

Then there’s the hero of the novel — SP Niki Marwah. Having established the no-nonsense top cop in her first detective novel Drop Dead (2012), Kaushal commendably doesn’t spend much time on Niki’s back story in Lethal Spice. She in fact sends Ram, Niki’s love interest, all the way away to Italy! What’s best about Niki is that though she’s tough as nails, she’s not a she-man. And the banter and camaraderie between her and her deputy, ASP Shankar Sahay, serve to remind what an ideal workplace should be like, in 2014.

Which is why the ending, which is nothing short of a 1970s Hindi potboiler, sits so uneasy on this contemporary murder mystery. The final moments read like a film script gone wrong. And that’s a pity, because the book would have worked even without the end-acrobatics in the balcony.

Samhita Chakraborty

In Smart by Kim Slater [Macmillan Children’s Books, Rs 299], Kieran Woods is lonely, has very little social skills, has special needs and an awesome ability to draw. What’s even more awesome is his heart — warm and kind — and a fairly sharp brain. When he sees a homeless man dead in the river and the police disinclined to do much, he is determined to solve the case.

Kieran’s home life is centred around a harassed and abused mother, her tyrant partner with a bullying son who could have forged a tenuous bond with Kieran but doesn’t, and a grandmother who he misses very much. Outside of home, Miss Crane, his special educator in school, helps him relate to the world at large.

The premise may make you inclined to fish out your copy of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. But do not make comparisons. Read it without prejudice, or expectations. These are refreshing, sensitive 229 pages of polished writing that make you introspect and empathise. And savour the small moments.

Kieran does solve the mystery of the homeless man’s death. But he also ends up solving a mystery about his own family. And just like every children’s book should have, there is comeuppance for the bad guys too. Children need to know evil and unkindness go punished, that it is always possible to think big and there are some things you just can do when you set about it. Does it make the book preachy? Not at all. It is just an adult’s takeaway from a book that washes off cynicism for the time being.

Oh yes, he also wants to grow up to be an investigative journalist.

Anindita Mitra