The hunt for Kohinoor by Manreet Sodhi Someshwar

"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.

The dust will never settle" by Mukul Deva

"The dust will never settle" by Mukul Deva.

India is hosting Commonwealth games when suddenly India is chosen to host peace talks between Israel and Palestine at the same time.

Chief of Anti terrorism task force, RS Gill, is incharge of security of both events. Pakistan based terrorists have declared that they will not let the games go smoothly. There is a plot to disrupt the peace talks by killing the delegates. This plot is lead by Ruby Gill, an MI6 agent and a double agent for Palestainian terrorist organization, who is also estranged daughter of RS Gill.

On one side there is Gill family story & on the other side terrorist threat that may make or break India's reputation. Add to the mix overenthusiastic politicians, officers who want to please politicians, western mercenaries, incompetent security apparatus, illegal arms, Israel, Palestenian terrorists & international conspiracy and you have a potent mixture of a thriller.

Ruby is torn between conflicting emotions and duty towards jihadi's. RS Gill is also torn between love for his daughter and duty and frustrated by incompetence of his second in command.

Mukul has been successful in portraying the emotional side powerfully without undermining the action. The plot is built meticulously. Use of some real life terrorists as characters lend credibility to the plot on one hand and make the plot tangible on the timeline on he other hand.

Although this book is  little short on action it is more than compensated by a strong undercurrent of violence and death.

Intelligent readers can guess the end of the book.

A good book. Recommend reading.