Death in the Air

Ram Murali

20 JUNE 2024 | ATLANTIC | HARDBACK | £16.99

The White Lotus meets Knives Out meets Crazy Rich Asians in this devilishly entertaining debut novel: both

a sophisticated and thrilling locked-room mystery in the tradition of Agatha Christie, and a thoughtful and

procative exploration of identity and belonging.

Ro Krishna seems to have it all: charm, Oxford and Ivy League education, perfect hair and a successful career – until he was forced to leave his job under mysterious circumstances. Reeling, he decides to recover from the stress at Samsara, a world-class luxury wellness resort in the Indian Himalayas, where he can enjoy innumerable yoga classes, massages and guided-meditation sessions alongside the hotel’s other rich and well-connected guests.

But between the treatments and enforced daily steams, there’s plenty of tension and intrigue amongst the clientele of charismatic heiresses, films stars and politicians… and then one of the guests is found dead. As the police arrive and the hotel scrambles to keep the murder quiet, Ro is pulled into an investigation where nothing is as it seems, endangering them all.

It’s not just heiresses and Bollywood stars-to-be staying at Samsara. A murderer has also checked in – and they’re not leaving yet.

Ram Murali began his career as a lawyer in private practice in London and Paris, and worked for many years across all aspects of film and television development, production and distribution. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College, Columbia Law School, the Sorbonne and the University of Cambridge.