The Accidental Apprentice by Vikas Swarup

"The Accidental Apprentice" by Vikas Swarup. This book is published by Minotaur books in 2014 and has 448 pages. Famous movie Slumdog Millionaire was based on Vikas Swarup's book Q&A.

Sapna Sinha, the only bread winner in her house, works as a salesgirl in an electronic showroom. One day while she has gone to a temple a sudden opportunity presents. Sapna is offered the position of CEO of 8th biggest conglomerate of India by its current CEO Vinay Mohan Acharya. The condition is that she should pass seven tests. If she fails any one, she is out of contention. Six or seven candidates have already failed before her.

Is this a prank? Is this part of aTV show? Is the offer genuine? Will she agree? Will she fail? Would she have to make a deal with devil? How does the story unravel? Who is murdered?

Author has attempted to package this book as much more than entertainment. It contains a story. It has lessons of management and it also tackles the social issues.

The book takes issues like khap panchayats, child labor, corruption, exploitation of women, acid attacks, human organs racket etc.. It also give lesson in soft skills like leadership, integrity, courage, foresight, resourcefulness & decisiveness. Author should be congratulated for this bold attempt.

Only regret is that while trying to balance all three aspects, he has fallen just short on all of them landing in 'Jack of all trades' situation. There were also a few lose ends that should have been tidied up like how does the killer know that Sapna will purchase a knife? How does the killer know that Sapna will go to his house?

Look at it as a social novel disguised as thriller and then you will like it. Not for those who want only fun reading.

Six suspects by Vikas Swarup

"Six suspects" 2nd book by Vikas Swarup. This is a whodunit mystery. By the way 'Slumdog Millionaire' was based on 1st book of Vikas titled 'Q&A'.

Vicky Rai is a young industrialist and son of home minister of Uttar Pradesh. He has a crime history of mowing down pavement dwellers, killing black bucks (based on Salman Khan) and killing a beautiful bartender for refusing a drink (based on Jessica Lal case). On the day Vicky is hosting a party, celebrating his aquital, he is murdered. There are six suspects. A corrupt bureaucrat, a tribal, an unemployed youth,  a top actress, a dim witted American, and Vicky's father (the politician).

What happened? Whodunit? Everyone has a motive to kill. But is it big enough to actually kill? Who is the killer?

Since the suspects are restricted to six the author has gone into the lives of these suspects in detail to establish the story (this is not usual in a typical murder mystery). Vikas has established the characters, their association with Vicky and their motives in detail. The collection of suspects is so diverse that associating them to Vicky is a Herculean task. That's probably why this book is being made in to a motion picture.

Vikas is a decent story teller and keeps you interested. However in explaining the background of six suspects he is left with very few pages for the actual crime and no pages at all for the investigation. Character of Vicky also goes under developed.

The climax is full of action. A new killer appears every 2-3 pages and readers keep guessing how many more twists are still to come. This makes it difficult for readers to recognize the killer. This is what a murder mystery should achieve. I could not recognize the killer.

We can definitely expect more from him in future.

A good read. Recommend reading.