This layered novel is, at first glance, a thriller set in Delhi at the turn of the millennium whose characters include a retired spymaster, a crime reporter, the owner of a detective and security agency, a fresh recruit at an environment NGO, and a local don. They all have names and personas that are drawn from The Jungle Books of Rudyard Kipling. The story they tell is of a new world being born, in struggle with the old…and in their struggle is an echo of an older struggle, from a previous century.
