Hatyapuri , is a crime novel by Satyajit Ray. It gets its title from Puri, a city located on the shores of the Bay of Bengal which is a popular tourist attraction in East India. It was first serialized in the Sandesh magazine in 1979 and released in book form in the same year by Ananda Publishers.
Disturbed by the heat and humidity of Calcutta in June, (combined with frequent electricity failures) the “Three Musketeers”, Pradosh C. Mitter (Feluda), Topshe, and Lalmohan Ganguly (Jatayu) go to Puri for vacation. There they stay in Neelachal Hotel, owned by Lalmohan Babu’s landlord’s classmate, Shyamlal Barik. In the evening, while strolling on the beach, the trio spot odd footprints on the sand. Later, Lalmohan Babu goes to meet an astrologer, Laxman Bhattacharya, who is presumably gifted with extrasensory perception . Laxman lives in a building called “Sagarika” owned by an elusive man known as D. G. Sen. In the hotel, Shyamlal informs them that Sen’s main interest is in collecting manuscripts.
