Parini Shroff’s book is undoubtedly an ode to women. “Women splayed the far corners, their cruelty and kindness equally capacious,” thinks Geeta, the protagonist, as she mulls over the vast range of emotions and actions that women are capable of. And this range is amply displayed through all the female characters of the book, each with her own complexities and idiosyncrasies.

All these women are a study in contradictions. Geeta is a designer of mangalsutras, whom the entire village considers the slayer of her own husband; Saloni is a bully, but stands steadfast in defence of her friends; Farah’s cunning lies in her apparent cluelessness; Preity and Priya fight over earrings but are willing to sacrifice themselves for each other; Khushi, the Dalit “corpse collector”, weaponises her caste-determined job to exploit the rich.

But Shroff doesn’t only pay attention to her women. She has also etched her setting expertly and displays a remarkable ease in bringing up social and political issues in the midst of what can only be called a dark and comic murder marathon. There are thus observations on discrimination based on caste, domestic abuse, marital rape, social inequalities and more.

It is interesting how Shroff peppers her text with transliterations of Hindi insults as well as translations of common Hindi idioms. They help in tethering this book, written largely in crisp English, to its context: a small village in the heart of Gujarat.

What will not escape the readers is the rather benign — therefore hilarious — approach these women have towards homicide. They plan murders and Diwali parties in the same breath, as if it is a part of their domesticity and everyday life. Most of the men garner no sympathy and, after a while, the readers will find themselves accustomed to the bloodthirst of Geeta and her friends. This raises the possibility of a dubious endorsement: that the tryst with justice merits taking the law into one’s own hand.