Publisher’s write-up:
'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 in the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan, Chandra must face
up to the fact that Inspector Hassan is not all that he seems …'
The
Shadow Throne is a conspiracy thriller with a glimpse of history written by
Aroon Raman. It didn’t take me too long to get intrigued by the write-up of
this book – with a touch of history (including a history professor for a
protagonist), a murder, cross border conspiracy and of course, with the plot
also moving into Afghanistan.
It
had an excellent start, with the author giving the reader a full insight into
the main protagonist – Chandrasekhar (whose part is narrated from a first
person perspective) – a middle aged widower bereaved by the recent untimely
death of his wife who is a freelance journalist based in Delhi, passionate
about his profession. And once the character introduction was done, the action
began in no time, with Chandra getting a call regarding an unusual murder at
Qutub Minar – with the victim being one of the descendants of the ancient
Indo-Greeks. But, the murder is linked to a much greater conspiracy involving multiple
factions including RAW of India, Xiphos Soter (a group of Indo-Greeks in
Afghanistan trying to reclaim their past glory) and the ISI of Pakistan with
India facing a potential nuclear threat. It all comes down to Chandrasekhar and
Syed Ali Hassan (an inspector in Delhi Police) to go all the way to Afghanistan
serving both India and Pakistan and to stop the nuclear threat against all odds
and are in the process helped by Meenakshi Pirzada, a history professor and a
friend of Chandra’s late wife.
I
felt this novel had the perfect start, as aforementioned, giving an insight
into the protagonist and then, straight, going on to the crux of the novel
without beating about the bush. The reason why I’m a little sceptical about
trying out new age Indian authors is primarily because of clichéd mundane plots
being presented in sub-standard language but thankfully, I had a pleasant
surprise with this novel. I enjoyed the author’s language and the description
of the scenes of the novels, and thanks to his emphasis on detail, I had no
issues in visualising the novel. Another great aspect of this novel is the good
research – with the author having to touch up on a wide range of things, such
as the border security along the Line of Control between India and Pakistan,
nuclear missiles, the Indo-Greeks and their practices, the internal functioning
of intelligence agencies, Afghanistan, etc. It was also great to see the
character of Hassan and Chandra develop so well during the course of the novel
bringing out the complexities so well. However, the best part I felt about this
novel was, that despite all the write-up, Pakistan / ISI is not the enemy. When
I initially read the publisher’s write-up, I thought it was one of those
Pakistan bashing stories which sell so well in India (not sure about books,
certainly in films) but thankfully, it wasn’t and in fact, it was pleasing to
see such collaboration that one would just hope for it to happen outside a work
of fiction, too.
However,
despite all the positives, one disappointing thing about the novel was that the
Afghan setting, in my opinion wasn’t utilised well enough. I’d have enjoyed the
novel a lot more had the author touched more upon the surroundings at Ghazni
and the journey to Bamiyan, even if it had extended the novel by another twenty
pages. While the character development of Hassan and Chandra was excellent, at
the same time, Meenakshi could’ve been given some attention too as I could
never connect with her very much, as a reader – seemed more like one of those
sundry characters who give a couple of vital clues and just fade out.
While
I read comparisons of this with Dan Brown, I wouldn’t stop at that, I also
found an element of Henry Rider Haggard in his work, regarding a lost race with
huge dreams and touch of Alistair MacLean, as far as the action (and needless
to say, the protagonist surviving against the unlikeliest of odds). It was
pleasing to read such an excellent piece of work from a modern Indian author
and I wish to read more of his works. To summarise, this is a fabulous debut
and I wish to read more of his works.
Considering
the plot, the pace, the language, the character development and the research
involved to put together the 320 page ‘page-turner’, I’d give this book an
eight in my scale.
Rating – 8/10
Have a nice day,
Andy
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