The Murder of Sonia Raikkonen by Salil Desai (Book Review-3.75*/5) !!!

        There are not many writers who try thriller or crime thriller in India. I have majorly liked Ravi Subramanian and Ashwin Sanghi in this genre. Even picking up a new author brings huge amount of skepticism as you are scared if they would have treated the word called "Thriller" as one. Somehow I got my hands upon Salil Desai's "The Murder of Sonia Raikkonen- The 2nd book in the "An Inspector Saralkar Mystery" series. I haven't read the first one but the 2nd book is a great attempt of 335-pages by Salil Desai. It keeps you hooked until end. On the name of thriller, he has actually thrilled his audiences with his great talent of story telling. FingerPrint publishers are definitely playing big in the literary industry of India. The kind of work they are publishing is definitely at par with the quality published by bigger players like Penguin and Random House. 

 

           Salil Desai uses easy words to tell this story of how a girl is murdered and the culprit has to be found. He uses pacy language and wonderful narration to keep you hooked to the book. I read 50 pages daily just because I was enjoying the thriller so much that I wanted to be in it for a longer amount of time. This whole week I was only thinking about all the characters mentioned in the book and predicting who might be the killer. Another greatness that Desai have handled is the number of characters in the book. The names chosen for each of them makes it easy for you to identify them whenever they are mentioned after a long break. This is where many authors fail while writing a book with lots of characters. 

           I also liked the way book mentions the background of Saralkar and his chemistry with his wife. Similarly, another approach that makes this book a single-sitting stuff is the author's propaganda of leaving a scene in the midst itself and starting to discuss another sub-plot. You want to read it more fast after this to know what happened after that dialogue which a specific character had spoken. I liked this book mostly because writer didn't waste time in describing how work takes place in a Police station and thus boring his audience. Saralkar, Salunkhe and Motkar accompanied by others are always on their toes working on something rather than discussing FIR and several sections under which they should charge the culprit. 

           Coming to the drawbacks- I didn't like the climax as I had very high expectations. In the first 25 pages itself, the first person that you predict as the murderer of Sonia is the one who's actually is. This is where the author failed. I was expecting something that will make me jump off my seat but nothing of this sort took place. I was also waiting to read what finally happens with Saralkar and his wife's argument on a topic but even that's closed abruptly. Also, Sonia's cousin's role could have been used more significantly but it's just another special appearance in the book. I was with 4.5* for the first 2/3rd part of the book but because anti-climax and climax just didn't take this book to another level, I am going with 3.75*. I wish I could give it 4 but climax is the biggest drawback here and when we talk about thrillers, climax is what fetches you marks. 

 Thanks.

 ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU!!!