Rating: 3.5/5 ⭐
Genre: Crime, Thriller, Friction
Number of pages: 304
Published on: November 2018
Publisher: Westland
Set in: India
The Girl in Room 105- Chetan Bhagat
The Girl in Room 105 is the tenth book written by one of the bestselling Indian authors, Chetan Bhagat. It is his first book based on a crime thriller, which is very different from the usual romance stories that he had written. The book not only revolves around the crime scene but also unveils the various political scenarios, the investigation procedures, the media and the stereotypes of Indians.
SUMMARY
The story begins with the author having a conversation with a fellow passenger on an IndiGo flight bound to Delhi from Hyderabad. The man introduces himself as Keshav and insists to tell him his “unlove story”. The rest story is narrated in first person by Keshav.
Keshav is an ex-IITian who works at Chandan classes, a JEE coaching center. He is still in love with his ex girlfriend, Zara Lone, whom he often drunk dials and texts, which annoys her boyfriend, Raghav. Saurabh, Keshav’s colleague at the coaching center and one of his closest friends, always advises him to move on from her and get a life. Zara Lone is a Kashmiri Muslim and is a fair and beautiful lady, contrary to her Boyfriend Raghav who is a South Indian, and is intelligent but has geeky looks. Zara is pursuing a degree of Ph.D. at IIT Delhi.
On her birthday, Keshav somehow stops himself from calling to wish her but at about 3 A.M. he gets a text from Zara that she was expecting a birthday wish from him. To make it up, he goes to her hostel to wish her in person. He takes Sourabh along with him and asks him to wait, watch and warn if anyone was around. He climbed the tree near room 105 and got in through the window.
He finds Zara asleep on the bed. He talks to her for some time but finds no response he touches her forehead to find she was dead cold. She had been murdered. He was shocked and deeply sad to find the girl he loved, dead, on her birthday.
He is determined to find out the one who took away his love from him. Although he himself becomes a suspect, it is lifted as Keshav’s father belongs to a renowned political party. He along with Saurabh with the permission of the police officer, Inspector Rana, investigates the case.
The Watchman of the hostel, who was away during the time of the murder, becomes the easiest suspect to the investigating officer. Also, Zara had complained against the watchman stating that he gave pervy looks to the girls passing by thus adding as a reason for his arrest, but that wasn’t a cause strong enough plus there was a lack of evidence. However, the suspicion shifts to Professor Saxena who was Zara’s Ph.D. guide, who also tries to harass her.
When Zara’s room is searched, Keshav finds a safe that contained some gunpowder, costly jewelry, pregnancy test kits, and a mobile phone which had pictures of Zara and Sikandar (Zara’s step-brother).
Keshav and Saurabh fly to Srinagar to find Sikandar, whom they suspect to have killed Zara. They find that he was a part of a terrorist group named TEJ.
Sikandar kills himself to convince everyone that he was loyal to his group to not leak any information and also that he did not kill his dear sister.
On further investigation, he finds out that a family friend and an Army man had gifted Zara some expensive jewelry, the one they found in her safe. They conclude that he had an affair with Zara, and as she was pregnant, he couldn’t afford this news to be out, so he killed her.
Zara’s father arranges a small prayer at their house on 100th Day after Zara’s death where they were supposed to catch the culprit. However, Keshav takes a small trip to Hyderabad before that, the trip clears his mind and he finds out who actually is the murderer.
“When you lose something, don’t think of it as a loss. Accept it as a gift that gets you on the path you were meant.”
The Girl in Room 105 – Chetan Bhagat
About the author
Chetan Bhagat (born 22 April 1974) is an Indian author, columnist, screenwriter and motivational speaker, known for his Indian-English novels about young middle-class Indians. Bhagat writes columns on youth, career development, and current affairs for The Times of India (in English) and Dainik Bhaskar (in Hindi). His debut novel was Five point someone. His books have inspired five Bollywood movies (Kai Po Che, 3 idiots, 2 states, half girlfriend, and Hello).
Personal Reviews
Chetan Bhagat is mostly known for his writings on young romance. The girl in room 105 is the first crime thriller novel by him. The plot twists do add suspense and thrill to the story, but it also feels like an exaggerated version of a CID episode. The mysterious setting keeps your attention bound and is good for a one-time read. I’d rate it 7 on a scale of 10.