Woman reading 'How to Kill Men and Get Away With It' on the metro goes viral as internet links it to Pune murder case

It was just another metro ride. A woman was sitting beside a friend, quietly reading a book while commuters around her went about their day. Normally, nobody would've given it a second thought.But this wasn't just any book.The cover read How to Kill Men and Get Away With It by Katy Brent, and within hours, a video of the moment had spread across social media.The timing only made things more interesting.The clip surfaced as the alleged murder of Pune-based businessman Ketan Agarwal continued to dominate headlines. Investigators have accused Agarwal's fiancée, Siya Goyal, and her alleged boyfriend, Chetan Chaudhary, of plotting his murder after he was pushed from Lohagad Fort near Pune on June 18.

Police allege the duo later tried to make it look like an accident.With that case already being widely discussed online, many social media users immediately connected the viral metro video to the ongoing news story—even though there is no evidence linking the woman in the video to the case in any way.The internet, as usual, had plenty of opinions.Some people made jokes, while others criticised the title of the novel itself.

"Next Siya loading!" one user wrote.Another commented, "Imagine if the title had 'women' instead of 'men'. People would react very differently."Others defended the book, saying people were judging it without knowing what it was actually about."The perfect example of don't judge a book by its cover," one comment read.Another user pointed out that the title is meant to grab attention and doesn't tell the whole story.And that's true.Despite its provocative name, How to Kill Men and Get Away With It isn't a guide or a manual. It's a work of fiction.Written by British author Katy Brent, the novel is a darkly comic psychological thriller. It follows a woman whose life spirals in an unexpected direction after she begins targeting predatory men. The story mixes satire, crime and suspense, using an intentionally shocking title that has helped make it a bestseller.Still, social media rarely waits for context.A few seconds of video, a striking book cover and a major crime story already making headlines were enough to spark thousands of reactions.Reading a book on the metro is hardly unusual. People scroll through their phones, listen to podcasts, solve crossword puzzles or get lost in novels every day during their commute.This time, though, it wasn't the reader who became the centre of attention.It was the title on the cover.And once the internet noticed it, the conversation quickly became less about reading and more about assumptions, timing and how easily context can disappear online.