Is the pen truly mightier than the sword?

In the bustling South Indian town of Chennai, poet Pedro Lanzares is found murdered in his apartment. Lines from an ancient Tamil poem have been inscribed on a piece of paper and shoved in his mouth.

The incident sparks shock and alarm in the Anglo Indian community. But for Harsha Devnath, a journalist grappling with imposter syndrome, it is a lifeline. Desperate to burnish his credentials as a top-notch reporter, he sets out to discover why anyone would bother to kill an impoverished artist, let alone employ an assassin to do so.  

But to get answers, Harsha needs to navigate dangerous waters. Lanzares's irreverent poems about religion, culture and patriotism have riled up traditional and fundamentalist forces in a country that is changing rapidly and growing more divided by the day.

Oh, and there's also a hired killer on the loose...