Is It Maya? by Saikat Baksi

Blurb (from the cover):

Maya Mukhija is charming, intelligent and enigmatic.She has all the riches and power of the world. Maya loves to overpower men. She is the arm-candy wife of an ageing media mogul. Maya is not a loser. 

But one ne morning, Mumbai police knocks the door of her posh apartment and handcuffs her. "You killed Veena, your daughter," the Police Commissioner declares. 

"Veena was my sister, not daughter. And I wished her dead. But I never killed her," Maya Mukhija replies. 

The hunt begins through the shadowy yesterdays of Maya Mukhija. 

Love, treachery and a web of lies peel off the dark truth one by one. 

Who killed Veena? ls it Maya?"

Logicops by Vaibhav Mukim

Blurb (from the jacket):

A new department of police which solves crimes using the technique of logical communication—a method that allows communication through walls, over long distances and simultaneously with a lot of people. It uses nothing but the person’s surroundings. And just as peculiar as the method, are the crimes they solve.

Private India by James Patterson and Ashwin Sanghi (Private Series)

Blurb (from the jacket):

In Mumbai seemingly unconnected people are dying, strangled in a chilling ritual and with strange objects carefully arranged with the corpses. 

For Santosh Wagh, head of Private India, the Mumbai branch of the world’s finest investigation agency, it's a race against time to stop the killer striking again. 

In a city of over thirteen million, he'd have his work cut out at the best of times but this case has him battling Mumbai's biggest ganglord and a godman who isn't all he seems.

And then he discovers there may be an even greater danger facing Private India. Hidden in the shadows is someone who could destroy the whole organisation along with thousands of innocent Mumbai citizens...

Mumbaistan by Piyush Jha

Mumbaistan by Piyush Jha

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

ISBN: 9788129120175

Review:

I came to know that the author is a film director and an ad film maker. I was impressed. I always felt that Indian film industry story writers must publish the book version of their movie. That way, the movie would be less graphics and more realistic.

As this is Piyush Jha's first novel, I have no idea what to expect from him. But now, after reading the whole book, I think he deserves a 'hats off'. Each story was excellent and very well written that the respect I had for writers, which downfalled after reading a few 'worst' novels, hiked no bounds.

"Really, man, Piyush. You must continue writing, such wonderful stories."

I am writing this review story-to-story. This book has three crime thrillers and I will be writing the review after reading each story. That way, I could be more honest with the review.

Story One: Bomb Day

There are five key characters of this story. Tanvir, the lead character, a gangstar. Hani, an ACP. Rabia, a run-away from Kashmir and a prostitute in Mumbai's red light area. Zohra, Rabia's prostitute friend. Alamzed, a Paskistani terrorist.

After 26/11, it is rumoured that there is another group of Pakistani terrorists, who stayed in Mumbai, living a life blended with the normal citizens of the maximum city. Now, years after 26/11, Mumbai is threatened of an explosion that would outthrash the previous castastrophe of 26/11 and will be equivalent to that of the hullabaloo created in New York. Mumbai could be spared the disaster only by one person. ACP Hani, who with the hellp of Tanvir, could stop the disaster.

The ACP has a plan and everything goes according to the plan. Or, that is what he thinks. Was his plan coming along or is he just brought to believe so?

With purest love and twistiest twist, Bomb Day is a very good story...


Story Two: Injectionwala

A series of murders take place in Mumbai. The only thing common among the murders is the way they are murdered - with an injection (hence the name of the chapter, Injectionwala).

Later, police finds out a link between the victims. They are all part of a organ trafficking racket. Someone is killing all the corrupt people involved in the organ racket.

When reading, I thought I figured out the ending. That happened when I read the first stroy, too. But in both the cases, I was terribly wrong. The twist at the end of the stories are at its best.

In this story, after few scenes comes a journalical report of the the story so far. The concept of placing a detailed report of the police findings and the expression of the media and public about the injecitonwala is very intelligent. It was very well thought.

Two stories down. After the first one, my feeling was that, this is a good book. Then, I moved on to the read the second. And now, after reading the second one, I feel this is a great book. Cant wait to compelete reading the third one. Hope it doesn;t ruin my expectations.

Story Three: Coma Man

The story starts with a recollection of Samir Khanna gifting a necklace for his wife, Bahaar Khanna, on her birthday.

The next moment Samir is out of Coma - the state he was in for the past ninteen years! He was in Coma for such a long time, so people at the hospital, in which he was admitted in, referred to him as Coma Man - hence the name of the chapter.

With a start, Samir remembers nothing about his past.The quest to know about his past, to know about himself, starts. All he he rememebers is his name, his wife's name and that that day was her birthday.

Like all his other stories, this one's plot was filmy, too. But we Indians love films, don't we?

The perfect end-story for the collection. The order the stories were arranged is excellent. The present story is better than the presiding one.

After reading the first two stories, one would notice a trend in the unexpected twists at the end of the stories. At least I have. And as I expected, the third one also followed a similar twist. Still, it didn't alter the affect of the twist on me.

About the book:
Excellent stories. Mind-blowing twists. Intriguing narrative style. Good language. Overall, a worth-reading-at-least-once read...

I feel like, after reading these stories intently for a couple of times, one can have a mental map of all the lanes, streets and areas of Mumbai, who never once had been to Mumbai in their entire life.

The Bankster by Ravi Subramanian

The Bankster by Ravi Subramanian
Rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

John Grisham is a lawyer. So he writes thrillers based on Law. Robin Cook is a physician. So he writes about medicine and topics affecting public health. Here, Let us WELCOME, Ravi Subramanian. He is an alumnus of IIM Bangalore, worked nearly two decades in the financial industry. So he writes thrillers about banking and bankers.

THE BANKSTER is a story based on money laundering, banks, CIA, blood diamonds, materialistic greed, murders, politics, environmental issues regarding nuclear proliferation etc.

In the beginning,
a thriller-story must have a gripping Prologue. THE BANKSTER is a multiple-layered yet interconnected thriller story. It starts with a prologue, where there are three apparently unrelated events taking place.

1. A CIA agent is buying blood diamonds worth of an eye-shattering money.
2. A hotel resort owner is being accused of ivory smuggling.
3. The picturing of a reputed global bank and its employees.

A perfect prologue- no connections between the stories, don’t know what is happening and what is going to happen. But the reader already knows that some thing ominous is going on.

In the middle,
a thriller-story must have some chilling crimes, back-stabbings, and double-crossings etc. which prompt the reader to sit and read the entire story in one sitting. THE BANKSTER has some hot and spicy murders of the employees of that bank in questionable circumstances which give suspense to the story. A GOOD man (the hotel resort owner), fighting for a GOOD cause, is being used by a BAD man with BAD intentions in the name of providing help for GOOD man’s GOOD cause, but for his own greedy benefits. An inside, but unknown person is letting the information about GOOD people to BAD people.

In the ending,
there is must be an investigation. Isn’t an investigation to find out the truth is the main essence of a thriller? Here that is what lacks in THE BANKSTER. The entire process of investigation in which a reader finds some adrenaline-pumping chasings from bad guys, near to death experiences in the hands of bad guys, the deaths of mates in the game, “never able to believe” truths. Where are all these? The author simply did a fine calculation, used some intuitive thoughts, some fate chosen incidents to reveal the real facts about whole story.

Tell everything. But make sure that a reader didn’t know anything. Then reveal everything one by one and make reader awe with the twists. THE BANKSTER has little such twists, but has a clean view of twists about the crime propagating through the banks on which THE BANKSTER based and that is what make you to read this story. THE BANKSTER is not a surprising, kick-assing but a simple, cozy thriller which could be a better story in my view. Those who like to read a thriller with a different aspect can give it a try.

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