The Puppeteer by Arindam Mukherjee

"The Puppeteer" by Arindam Mukherjee. This book is published by Grapevine India in 2013 and has 254 pages.

President of Pakistan has agreed to acknowledge the line of control in Kashmir as international border. This is a big victory for India. Lasting peace seems to be a real possibility. But Pakistani multimillionaire business tycoon and pro Islamist Aamir Ben Kalish is livid. He doesn't like the stance of the President who also happens to be his personal friend. He summons his second in command Zuair and his son Omar to assassinate the President while on tour of India.

Can his plan come to fruition? Can his team infiltrate India? Can they find agents to assassinate the president? Will they succeed? Can Indian intelligence stop them?

This is Arindam's first fiction novel. He has put up a credible effort. The seed is imaginative. Execution is also good. He has managed to churn a decent story. Characterization, though, needed more efforts.

A large portion of the book is spent on elaborating first the reason and then the perpetration for the plot. The Indian intelligence does not get the whiff of the assassination plot until two third of the book is over. This means that the tantalizing cat and mouse game gets limited page space.

It also appears that the Pakistanis had not done their home work thoroughly and they improvise the plot as it develops. Such plots usually do not succeed. Side story of Mafizul and his lust for Salima appears weak.

Author has introduced a special twist in the tale in the epilogue. I don't know why he waited till epilogue for reveling the twist.

OK book. Read if you have time.