Bhujang Shetty and the Lost Treasure of Basrur by Gautham V Kedoor
My take on the book:
In the early 1970s, in the sleepy coastal town of Basrur, twenty-one-year-old Bhujang Shetty works at his father Nilanjan’s juice center. While the shop’s lime juice is a local staple with potential to expand across Udupi, Bhujang is fueled by pulp detective novels and determined to become a master detective himself.
Aside from catching rodents chewing through vehicle wiring, Basrur offers little excitement — until his aspiring writer friend, Rathnesha, begs for help. Rathnesha wants to marry his love, Bhagya Hegde, but mounting family debt forces her into an arranged match with a creditor named Rakesh Nayak. Convinced that finding Bhagya’s long-lost ancestral treasure is the only way to clear the debt and stop the wedding, the duo sets out on an urgent quest with just a seven-day deadline.
Whether Bhujang and Rathnesha will be able to find the treasure or if it is only a myth forms the rest of the story.
A story set in the 1970s in a small town in Udupi district where the protagonist is fed up with his mediocre life of unloading fruit cartons and squeezing lemons all day, combined with an aspiring writer friend who must uncover a hidden treasure to marry the girl he loves, makes for the perfect backdrop for a cozy mystery. The bonus, however, is the humor and laughs these innocent characters generate in their attempt to find this treasure.
Beyond the warm humor, the novel’s greatest strength is its rich Karnataka flavor, woven seamlessly through local cuisine, dialect, and cultural quirks. There are barely ten characters, but the author’s ability to keep the pace steady throughout the story means the reader will want to complete the book in one sitting. Clues are unraveled one by one, and the author balances the narrative well by giving Bhujang and Rathnesha small wins and sometimes bigger losses.
This keeps the story realistic; readers will relate to the journey and genuinely root for the characters to succeed. At some level, the characters are an even bigger highlight than the actual plot. The book proves that charismatic storytelling does not require sprawling backdrops or overwrought prose.
If you like small-town cozy stories with a good dose of humor, then this is a must-read.
My rating:
4/5.