BLURB:
Naithy Cherozil is a rich and successful business woman from Mumbai who marries the young and handsome model Tony D’Souza after the death of her spouse. Little does she know that the ideal sex slave of her husband is the sleeper cell of a terror outfit. Events in her life take unforeseen turns as the male Mata Hari is activated.Prem Rollands is a ‘Kalari’ exponent and a brilliant student whose world revolves around his brother Arun. Things go awry when the police kill Arun under mysterious circumstances. Prem kills the inspector in retribution and is on the run. He is on the lookout to find the dark secrets leading to Arun’s death. Prem must avenge those who have plotted to kill his brother.Eighteen year old Alice Cherozil knows more about computers and mystery games than a girl of her age. Her life falls apart when her mother is hospitalised and in a coma. She is playing the ultimate mystery game of her life as the web of secrets surrounding two precious diamonds and her stepfather threaten to destroy her family. She overcomes the moral dilemma to kill her stepfather. Alice must outwit the underworld and stay ahead of all to save her mother’s life or the guilt of her failure will haunt her forever.As the lives of Naithy, Prem and Alice cross each other they must retain their faith and protect their beloved ones, even at the cost of their own lives.
A master piece from the Best-selling and Award -winning author of Men and Dreams int he Dhauladhar .A riveting saga of love, lust, betrayal, intrigue and revenge.
Review
Set in a contemporary mood style the novel is a fast paced thriller. The second from the author of Men and Dreams in The Dhauladhar . Based on the idea of keeping faith and notion of being one’s loved person, the novel has all elements like love, suspense, thriller, violence encompassed within it.
The opening where Alice Cherozil holds a knife remembering a passage from the bible is where it all starts. A gory and a deep intensive description about how she first contemplates and then proceeds with a firm determination wherein she ends up murdering her step-father Tony Dsouza.
How Tony becomes her step-father is altogether a different story wherein her mother Naithy who loses her husband as one of the victim’s of the Mumbai terror attack. She marries Tony, a model and ended up becoming him sex slave. Thereafter she slips into coma post an accident.
There is yet another story plot simultaneous wherein two brothers(Arun and Prem) who fled with money raping Naithy. Arun on the other hand is killed by the police for which Prem seeks revenge and is waiting upon a chance to avenge his brother’s death.
An action packed sequence follows as Alice does not foresee a lot things when she charted the plan to murder , Tony. But she finally managed to kill him and runs away. Prem looks to kill both Alice and Naithy and God it makes you wonder for a second why on earth all this is happening.
The plot narrows down to some underworld connections which seemingly makes it appear like a British political drama which will all the more leave you gaping and roll the eye balls on multiple occasions. Trust me I don’t remember the number of times I did that.
Even though I found the novel gripping and the plot to be intriguing I needed a break at times, just because everything was going overboard for me. Too many storylines which seem to run parallel and lot of motives which underlie bringing into picture more characters seeking revenge for one another.
I still couldn’t decipher myself as to who I should be putting forth as the protagonist because there were a lot many characters that seemed important at the spur of the moment and then vanished.
The book does have some loose ends but that does not stop you from finishing it. I found the language a bit difficult and it being in the second person narrative , took me time to comprehend what was happening. But applaud to the descriptive nature of writing style.
The book cover is well designed with a blood drop dripping from heart shaped diamond kind of giving you a hint of what can be expected.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kochery C. Shibu is a retired naval officer. A graduate from the National Defence Academy he has held several important posts in the Indian Navy. Post his retirement he has executed hydroelectric projects in the Cauvery river basin in Karnataka, Beas river basin in Himachal and lately Teesta river basin in Sikkim. He holds a postgraduate degree in Defence Studies from Chennai University, and MA in English Literature from Pune University. Men and Dreams in the Dhauladhar is his debut novel. The technical content of the novel, namely the setting up of a hydro-project is drawn from his experience in these projects since 2005, as are many of the characters inspired from those whom he encountered at the project site. Kochery C. Shibu was born in Kochi and now lives in Bangalore with his wife and daughter.
This review is part of blogchatter’s bookchatter.
That Madras Mom 