Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line is Deepak Anappara's debut novel.  It concerns three friends who are searching for a missing classmate and is based on a real-life story.  The novel tells of children living in a slum in a fictional Indian city who are disappearing.

Nine-year-old Jai is upset that his best friend Bahadur has gone missing.  No one knew that Bahadur had gone missing until three weeks after he was last seen at home with his parents. His mother then contacted the police to find him.  Believing that Bahadur has run away from home, Jai gathers two other friends to help him find Bahadur. Pari and Faiz work with Jai and together they decide that a criminal called Quarter is their first suspect.  The threesome walk down market lanes, passing people, dogs, food stalls and tin-roofed houses all the way to the local train station, which is the end of the purple metro line where Jai's father works.  When the three kids are unable to find Quarter at his usual hangout, the Bhoot (ghost) Bazaar, they decide the next step is to interview the press-wallah's son Omvir.  However, Omvir is not home because he also is out searching for Bahadur.  The owner of Hakim's TV Repair Shop suggests that a djinn kidnapped Bahadur even though djinns rarely abduct children.  The trio go to the purple line train station and show passersby Bahadur's photo.  Jai uses the sleuthing skills he obtained from watching reality police shows on TV to conduct his investigation.  When other children start disappearing from their neighborhood, Jai, Pari and Faiz talk to the terrified parents and a couple of indifferent police officers all while discussing rumors of soul-snatching djinns. 

I had a hard time classifying this book in a genre. When I began reading it I thought it was a historical mystery. Later I realized it was not historical. What confused me was the level of impoverishment in Jai's basti (slum).  I couldn't imagine that type of poverty existed today. However, it does exist. In slums all over India 187 children disappear each day. This fact is what prompted the author to choose this subject for her novel. The next difficulty I had in determining the genre was that the book didn't read like a mystery. While Jai, Pari and Faiz were investigating the disappearance of their neighbors, they are kids and kids don't "investigate" the same way as amateur sleuths or detectives investigate. The point of view from which everything occurs is from nine year old Jai's eyes. In some respects it  seems like a children's book. How do I classify the book? As a novel. 

The slum setting is integral to the story. Part of this setting includes the names and faces of many characters, most of whom have nothing to do with the plot and some who are only mentioned once. The author is creating a scene for the reader to help us understand what a slum looks like; people living upon each other.  It is grim.  With the point of view being from a child, it was a little difficult to figure out who all the characters were because the kids gave everyone a nickname. Towards the end of the story we learn most of their real names but after 300 pages of identifying characters by a nickname this didn't make sense.

As the historical mystery that I expected, the book fell short. Knowing now what the genre actually is, I would say that this is a great book.  4 our of 5 stars.