This novel is the first P. K. Basu story by Sanyal, though he called it as a "trial ball". Here, Basu is shown to be an old, unmarried man; who solves the death mystery of a businessman. Sujata, who is an essential character of the following stories, was accused of murder.
Narayan Sanyal (bn: 唳ㄠ唳班唳唳� 唳膏唳ㄠ唳唳�) was a well-known & versatile writer of modern Bengali literature. He received several awards for literature including Rabindra Puraskar for Aporupa Ajanta (Bangla: 唳呧Κ唳班唳 唳呧唳ㄠ唳む) in 1969, Bankim Puraskar for Rupmonjori (Bangla: 唳班唳Ξ唳炧唳溹Π唰赌) in 2000, and Narasingha Dutta Award. Many of his books were filmed and he won the Best Film Story Writer Award for Shotyokam (Bangla: 唳膏Δ唰嵿Ο唳曕唳�) by Bengal Film Journalists.
Sanyal wrote numerous books that dealt with many topics, such as children, science, art and architecture, travels, psychiatry, technology, refugee problems, history, biographical pieces, encyclopedia of animals, social novel and Devadasi-related. He also wrote a series of detective fiction called the Kanta (Thorn) series, the framework of which was borrowed from the Perry Mason series of novels by Erle Stanley Gardner. Some of the stories were inspired from popular Agatha Christie novels like Mousetrap, ABC Murders, etc.
Interestingly, this talented author also preferred writing books on deep shadow of many world famous works. One of the most popular Sci-Fictions Nakshatraloker Debatatma (Bangla: 唳ㄠ唰嵿Ψ唳む唳班Σ唰嬥唰囙Π 唳︵唳唳む唳) is based on the transformation of human race from primitive creature to civilized intelligent species controlling the whole earth. Then it deals with Jupiter exploration and a super intelligent Computer HAL. The three parted book is a clear shadow of 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke. In his book, NS renamed HAL as 'Jantra-Na.' In his mother tongue Bangla, it means 'Not a Machine'.
His most popular work is Biswasghatak (Bangla: 唳唳多唳唳膏唳距Δ唳�) written about the Manhattan project that developed the first US Atom Bomb. This book is based on the shadow of Brighter than a Thousand Suns: A Personal History of the Atomic Scientists (1970), by Austrian Robert Jungk. Not a shadow, but almost translation in some parts. Few of the illustrations in this book have been taken from few Russian school level books.
Another book Timi Timingil (Bangla: 唳む唳 唳む唳唳權唳椸唳�) is on Whales. This stands on an article published in Readers Digest. But while NS accepted this for Timi Timingil, he never mentioned or thanked authors of 2001 or Brighter.
Most of the "Kanta" series stories were copied or heavily inspired from Perry Mason novels. For example, "Ristedar-er Kanta" was copied from The case of the beautiful beggar, "Abhipurbak Ni-Dhatu Au-er Kanta" was inspired from The case of the restless redhead. Some of the stories were inspired from Agatha Christie stories. For example, "Dress Rehearsal-er Kanta" was inspired from Three Act Tragedy. NS acknowledged his inspirations in his first few "Kanta" series books, but forgot to do so for the latter ones.
Thousands of NS fans feel sorry of this as a man of his talent could have developed something even better instead of just 'Copying' and retouching others works while he had indeed produced some excellent works himself.
But it is undoubtedly accepted by all that NS was one of the finest authors in Bengali and he was a class apart from the flock of contemporary Bengali writers those who too dependent on sentiment and emotional overdose in their writings and too dependent on monopolist Bengali media/publication groups in commercial front.
This is probably the first book of his in the 'Kanta' series. The characters of Basu's subordinate detectives were introduced in this book through solving a case involving them. The characters were modified in the next books in the 'Kanta' series. It seems that detective novels of many other authors inspire Sanyal to have his own. Though we can not say that the attempt for the same is very enchanting, but somehow course of navigating through the plot was gripping and cinematic. As a result, a Bengali movie was made based on this.