The best part about my love for reading is when a book comes to me on its own especially when it comes from an Author and the worst is when it doesn't work for me. Like in the above book's case, Author approached me to read her book as my hourly rate for book reading is pretty affordable and I always more than oblige when approached as that's what I love doing provided I am compensated by an amazing story and if not, it at least covers the book price and cost of putting the book that I am reading on hold till I finish the Author sent book and pass on my opinion of the same. Going by the title and the review available on Goodreads, this one sounded liked a murder mystery cum thriller and got me excited as soon as I received my Kindle copy. Unfortunately it is a case of trying too hard to make it a suspense story with almost an average premise of whodunnit but it falls flat on its face as it doesn't have its heart in the right place. It was a pretty challenging read where the murder takes place at the very start with story keeps going back in flashbacks and reader is left guessing who could have done that and the reason behind it. There was a huge scope to develop but where it falters is the timeline, where it is happening and character development. None of those points are explained or covered by the writer that reader in me could connect with any of them. On top of that it doesn't even work like a straight forward story (which I believe she didn't intend to keep it anyways) where by the time it ends, it should make a point at least.
A very straight forward plot of two sisters relationship with each other gone sour (reason?) where younger sisters husband is a suspect in killing the elder one as they were having an extra marital affair (again reason?). The only thing which worked for me or I could call it a saving grace which kept me going to finish the book (as I always standby my commitment) was the Cop guy "Jai Dixit", yeah! You are right, our own Dhoom super cop :) I could actually imagine Abhishek Bachchan moving around solving the case but again there is no detailing as what he was wearing, riding / driving, nothing about his own life or past but in one last scene he is seen getting off a police jeep. What shocked me was no effort from writer to show us anything about the victim too, it was such a disaster that he life meant nothing to no-one that I kept looking forward to read something about her immediate family which wasn't there at all. And it was laughable by the way Mr. Jai Dixit solves the case as its a super cake walk for him to not only locate the murder weapon but finding its origin too. In the end, it leaves quite a few questions unanswered but then I seriously do not have the energy to grill the Author anymore as this wasn't a pre-published manuscript but a published book so I will let them it go. A lot of blame should go to her Editors too as there were quite a few instances where the names were printed wrongly, instead of cop they have printed suspects names and vice versa too. It is very confusing and not explained properly which city they start with, where they live and where exactly the whole thing is taking place, yet the case gets solved (or remains a mystery is to be read by the readers).
I believe one good thing this book actually did that it woke me up from the slump that I was going through of not posting anything for quite some time. Anyways, with this my paid project comes to an end and I will go back to Mr. H H Munro to finish his short stories.
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