(I am masking
the name of the book and the author as I don’t want to hurt the sentiments of
any)
The other day,
I had the misfortune of reading this so-called thriller by a debutant author. The
plot is somewhat like this- random men across the state are being targeted by a
mysterious lady who seems to be someone settled abroad. The lady has got a
strange modus operandi – she fakes love and, in the pretext of having a rendezvous,
gets these men to board a car and reach her place of stay. The bodies start
piling up pretty soon, and the investigation team is on the run to find the
Killer.
With a pretty
generic plot setting up the tone for this supposedly cinematic mystery
thriller, the least you expect are a couple of exciting twists and turns which
can hook you onto the proceedings. But writing with absolutely zero conviction
and subpar narrative coherence, this one turns out to be one epic mess and ends
up a complete waste of your time and money.
Now, picture
this. This one is a mystery thriller, and the principal investigating officer
mouths this gem of dialogue towards the last page of this novel (when he is
asked by another character how he managed to catch the Killer)-
“ഇതൊക്കെ എങ്ങനെ കണ്ടെത്തി ______? (how did you manage to capture
the Killer?)
“അതൊന്നും എനിക്കും അറിയില്ല സർ . എങ്ങനെയോ കണ്ടെത്തി എന്ന് വേണം പറയാൻ !” (I don’t know sir, I found out somehow!)
The characters in this wannabe thriller are equally dumb and outright
stupid. The supposedly evil men are so dumb that they are even willing to get
into the car and proceed to some unknown destination on the persuasion of some
random males with the sole hope of hooking up with their secret lover! The
lesser said about the basic plot, the better it is. The entire revelation and
the backstory preceding it would have made for a blockbuster had it come out a
good 50 years back!
At 112 pages, this one is an epic misfire! Replete with grammatical,
typesetting, formatting, and punctuation errors and giving scant regard to the time
and money spent by the average reader, books like this don't serve anyone. And, I honestly don’t believe we are doing a favor to
the language or the habit of reading in general by encouraging efforts like
this!
Pathetic, to say the least!
-nikhimenon
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