"The copper bracelet" by Jeffrey Deaver and others - Experiment gone wrong !
This book is published by Centerpoint publishing in 2009 and has 367 pages. This is sequel of ‘The Chopin manuscript’.
Devras Sikari is a dreaded, British educated Hindu terrorist from Kashmir. He gifts a copper bracelet to his follower who is apprehended by a group of investigators called ‘Volunteers’ and is killed by his own. Scorpion is the nemesis of Devras. There is a big plan afoot. Devras, Scorpion, Volunteers and another unknown entity are in a race.
Who is scorpion? Who is Devras? What do volunteers want? What is the big plan? How does Kashmir figure into it?
The story starts well. It’s pacey, there’s action, there’s intrigue and it’s happening. But slowly the story starts to lose grip. Issues start cropping up. Consistency goes for a toss. Then comes the climax. The weakest link. The concept is badly conceived. It’s not plausible. Everyone converges on to Kashmir. Everyone easily breaches water tight security.
The copper bracelet is written by multiple authors.
It’s an interesting concept to ask a different author to write each chapter. This has a risk of differing styles of narration. When so many writers write one chapter each, there are bound to be discrepancies, continuity issues and mismatches. They are all present in this book.
Moreover, the book is short on research. The US dignitary lands in Lahore (in Pakistan) to come to Baglihar dam in Kashmir (in India). Doing so would be a political faux pas. A character buys pre paid mobile in Kashmir, whereas it’s a known fact that prepaid mobile service is not available in Kashmir, only post paid is available. Then there is the laughable concept of a Hindu terrorist in Kashmir. Authors should have researched more. If they had, they would have known that Balan is not a Kashmiri name but a name from South India.
Why did I read this book? I had it for years.
What did I like? First few chapters.
What I didn't like? The rest.
It’s an unsuccessful experiment. Give it a miss.
