The review is not going to be kind, so disclaimer - some of my disappointment might be coming from the "national bestseller" tag on top of the book cover.
The plot is good, but long drawn. Some empty hooks could have been avoided because they neither added to the story nor to the story telling. It's like following the formula of detective fiction - to throw in a few red herrings. The other rule of detective fiction that the book follows is to take the reader along on the detection journey. That ploy makes some things very evident and then the red herrings thrown to confuse that part of the plot become boring for the reader. The twist at the end is not adequately explained and the reader has to do some thinking of their own to put the pieces together.
The characters are pasty and Inspector Saralkar is not likeable. The era of socially awkward detectives who are geniuses is over. Long gone. And even those socially awkward detectives did not treat their immediate families and their friends/associates with disdain. The way around social awkwardness is to not have a family. But treating one's junior with abject disrespect is just not done.
Oh, and we never really get to the "genius" part of the misunderstood genius that Saralkar is. The detection is painfully slow and procedural. The insights come to the reader before they come to Saralkar at times, and the reader is not a genius of any order.
The story telling is great. It holds the reader's interest all through. So, the length of the book does not hurt as much as it would have otherwise.
This is the third book in a series, but after reading the book, one felt the need to make a mental note to not pick up any more content of this series, national bestseller or not.
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