The Shadow Throne

Monday 29 October 2012

The Shadow Throne

My third Indian literature by a modern author and this is the first I actually liked. Presenting The Shadow Throne by Aroon Roman.

Here is the summary of the book:

India faces nuclear armageddon. A mysterious murder at the Qutub Minar triggers a call to ace journalist Chandrasekhar from his cop acquaintance, Inspector Syed Ali Hassan. The victim is unlike anyone Chandra has ever seen: a white Caucasian male who has all the looks of a throwback to Greek antiquity. Soon after, Hassan calls in to report the case has been taken away from him – in all likelihood by RAW – the Research & Analysis Wing, the uber-agency of Indian intelligence. What began as a murder enquiry soon morphs into a deadly game of hide-and-seek within the shadowy world of Pakistan’s ISI and India’s RAW; and Chandra, his friend history professor Meenakshi Pirzada and Hassan find themselves in a race against time to avert a sub-continental nuclear holocaust. As the action moves to its hair-raising climax among the Hindu Kush Mountains of Afghanistan, Chandra must face up to the fact that Inspector Hassan is not all that he seems …

Out of all the modern literature i have read, I always had some problem or other with one of them but it is safe to say that I genuinely liked this book. This is a thriller genre....and a million things could go wrong with this but its safe to say that Mr. Raman presented things rather beautifully and managed to get us readers enthralled.

It all began as a strange and mysterious murder case at Qutub Minar. The inspector on case Syed Ali Hassan brings in his friend, an ace journalist Chandrashekar. The victim, a Caucasian male has the appearance of a throwback that predates the time of the ancient Greeks. Things escalate to new lights. Some thing more and much bigger is going on here. There is a mother of all conspiracy going on here and Hassan, Chandra and another accomplice Meenakshi are pooling every resources to put a stop to this madness before India faces Nuclear Armageddon.

Finally, trying to not divulge the story, it is safe to say that The Shadow Throne is an amazing read. While we have three main characters here but much of the attention is sure to be on Hassan and Chandra since they are the ones trekking throughout the book to stop the bad from happening. The perspective also changes a lot but very much balanced here. Also loved the way Mr. Raman wove the twist and turns and facts throughout. I confess though I did not feel connected with the characters, they were it felt just there. The plot was rather much more interesting than they were. My God was it an interesting read. A thumbs up for me!