"The hunt for Kohinoor" by Manreet Sodhi Someshwar. This book is published by Westland Ltd in 2013 and has 432 pages. This is Book 2 of Mehrunisa Khosa series.
Mehrunisa has taken the post of her godfather at Archeological Survey of India. She is still haunted by nightmares; aftereffect of her father's disappearance when she was six.
President of Pakistan and Prime minister of India are in secret talks to establish peace when President of Pakistan is assassinated. The important documents he was going to hand over to India are also destroyed, but there is a copy somewhere. It's code named Kohinoor. Hunt for Kohinoor is on - in Pakistan. Babur Khan, a mysterious American soldier turned Islamic terrorist has surfaced.
Who is hunting for Kohinoor? Where is it? Who will get it? How is Mehrunisa involved?
As in the first book there are a lot of references to renaissance painters and their paintings and Mughal art. The story takes place in Pakistan and India.
The decision to send Mehrunisa, a civilian, to Pakistan in search of Kohinoor instead of her father does not make sense from logical and intelligence point of view. Especially when so much is dependent on the success of the mission, recruiting Mehrunisa seems to be far fetched. It's surprising that Pakistani intelligence can not find Mehrunisa, Raghav and RP Singh but Babur Khan can track them.
The author seems to be confused as to what should form the central theme of the story. Mehrunisa, Kohinoor documents, Agent Snow Leopard or the terrorist attack on Indian facility. In an attempt to cover all, she is all over the place and none of them is covered properly.
Manreet had raised my expectations after her first book. Her first book was profound. The second book however does not stand up to the reputation. It appears like a documentary. It's superficial. It disappoints.
Give it a miss.
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