Death Comes To Matheran, Shortlisted for the Binod Kanoria Award for Young Adult Fiction 2026

'Death Comes to Matheran is a page-turner. I started reading it on Saturday afternoon (big mistake), and when I surfaced, it was Monday, Tara and Sameer were my friends, and I knew a lot more about mean girls than is good for me.' — Jerry Pinto, author of Em and the Big Hoom, The Education of Yuri and Murder in Mahim

On a rainy night in 2012, Rakesh Jhaveri fell to his death from a slippery hillside in Matheran. Despite the many loose ends, the police closed the case as a tragic accident.

Eleven years later, Tara Jhaveri is furious-at her father for dying so unnecessarily, at her mother for suffering from partial amnesia, and at her childhood friends for shutting her out.

But when her mother's unreliable memory flickers to life, Tara finds herself investigating what really happened in Matheran. Helping her is a mysterious ally who has been quietly recording the recollections of the other people in Matheran that fateful night-Rakesh Jhaveri's closest friends.

With old secrets threatening to surface, Tara must rely on her own wits and sift through a tangle of half-truths and fractured memories to piece together the past-before another tragedy unfolds.