Review: A Murder in Multan by A.M. Sardar

Review: A Murder in Multan by A.M. Sardar

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I feel like I have always been interested in mysteries. There is something about them that I find irresistible. A good one will keep you asking questions and invested in plot developments the story throws your way. 

A.M. Sardar’s A Murder in Multan had me asking so many questions and wondering about the implications of the unfolding plot. The narrative woven together is intriguing in so many ways!

Before I go into my thoughts any further, however, let’s see what the story is about. 

Summary

We open to Dr. Shujaat Khan visiting his family in Pakistan for a wedding. At first, he thinks it will just be a regular family trip. However, when the next-door neighbor is murdered, the wedding is disrupted. 

While sorting out affairs for the neighbor, Shujaat discovers that there is more to this demise than he originally thought. However, as he continues to investigate, he learns that knowing this secret puts him in great danger, as the people involved will do anything to keep the information from getting out. 

Thoughts

I want to start with the admission that this story took some time to fully grab me. The timeline the narrative follows spans several years and the plot developments made the seemingly simple idea a lot more complex down the line. For me, that complexity had both positive and negative aspects to it. This is because the developments were somewhat difficult to follow due to how the answers were presented in the dialogue. I’ll discuss this more in the writing section. 

I will say that, once I did get more invested, I enjoyed how the suspense was handled. I remember feeling somewhat disappointed with how a piece of pertinent information was discovered when the mystery first came about. However, what this information led to more than made up for it. As more was revealed, I found myself asking several questions that kept me hooked!

Now that I have those thoughts out of the way, let’s move on to characters. 

Characters

Dr. Shujaat Khan 

At first, I wasn’t sure what to make of Shujaat as a main character. His feelings around his family had me questioning if I really liked him in the beginning. He is rather flawed, and it took a while before I started to appreciate his character and his story. That said, once we got into the main mystery of the narrative, I like how he reacts to it and his growth over time. His character in the beginning is different from who he is at the end, and I really enjoyed seeing that progression of his personality. 

I also find it interesting how he gets roped into this mystery and his ardent desire to uncover the truth is fascinating! He has determination that helps flesh him out and move the plot forward. There are so many obstacles in his way. The perseverance in search of truth is captivating to me, and it made the journey he goes on even more gripping! 

Now that I’ve discussed Shujaat, I want to move on to Kaiser next. Let’s get into it!

Kaiser

There is something about Kaiser that I just find so charming. The way he carries himself around Shujaat provides a stark contrast to a lot of the characters in this story. It felt more like he was there to be emotional support for Shujaat as he returned home, which I think is wonderful. While he doesn’t play a huge role in the story, I simply enjoyed his personality. 

With that said, I think that’s all I have on characters. Let’s move on to the structure!

Structure

The way this story is built is interesting to me. I did not realize when I started that the narrative’s timeline would span several years. It is split into parts, each taking place sometime after the previous section in different settings for each part. This allows movement to occur in the story. While it took me some time to see it myself, I like that we see the characters at different stages of their lives thanks to this. It is an intriguing aspect of the story.

I admit, however, that the mystery at the center of the story got rather convoluted. While this led to Shujaat getting involved with interesting situations, it took me some time to understand how it all fit together because of the way it was set up. The payoff felt a bit murky because of the complex situation that ends up unfolding. I’ll discuss that setup in more detail in the writing section. 

With that said, I think that’s all I have on the structure. Let’s move on to the writing!

Writing

Unfortunately, the writing didn’t always click with me. A.M. Sardar’s prose clearly illustrates what Shujaat is going through at different stages in his life, which is nice to see. However, the dialogue toward the end of the story confused me at times. The conversations pertaining to the mystery are presented in such a way that I ended up piecing together the information for longer than I would have liked. I think this happened in part because of all the characters we see giving Shujaat information. 

The wording in these explanations was difficult to follow because the information was often given out in one go. I think if dialogue were to be utilized in this way, having breaks during the conversations to clarify what the information meant could have helped. Sardar puts the meaning in at the end of the conversations but, because of the complexity, it did not hit me the way I think it was intended to and the explanations at the end felt like they were too long.

Well, with all that said, I think I’ve covered everything I wanted to discuss. Let’s wrap this up!

Conclusion

I really enjoyed this! While it took some time to get into, I ultimately found the story hard to put down once I realized where it was going! The mystery is interesting and Shujaat’s journey to uncover the truth left me wanting more! 

For this reason, I will be giving the story four stars.