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.

Sethji by Sjobha De

"Sethji", a political thriller, by Shobha De.

Sethji is a politician from Uttar Pradesh. He doesn't follow any rules, has no principals, is expert in managing things, works only for himself and is only interested in power. In short he is a typical politician and minister at center, who heads a small party and has become very important in the days of coalition politics.

He has two useless sons and a beautiful, sexy and capable daughter-in-law, Amrita, with whom he has illicit affair. Amrita is a intelligent, shrewd and cool headed women. Even Sethji can not fathom her completely.

Sethji has faced many problems and tricky situations in his life and has come out unscathed with the help of his wits, intelligence and his uncanny ability of exploiting the situation. Now Sethji is in a trouble of his life. Moreover he is incapacitated. The only person who can get him and his family out is Amrita with the help of a mysterious person MK.

Will Sethji come out winner? What does Amrita want? Can she turn on her magic? How will it end? The story takes place in Mumbai and Delhi.

Shobha's writing style is direct. She does not waste time in preamble and gets to the point. Politics today runs on flesh, money and information; and this is the theme of this book. She has portrayed the picture of today's politics brashly. It's a gloomy picture.

The description of various amorous encounters in the book is a bit crude and lacks artistic value or class.

The plot is good. A number of characters are based on real life politicians and smart readers can recognize which ones. The story goes slightly out of control when it moves to Mumbai, but keeps you just interested enough not to lose interest. The end however was bit of an anti climax.

An OK read.

Battle for Bittora by Anuja Chauhan

"Battle for Bittora", by Anuja Chauhan during vacation.
   
This is the story of Sarojini 'Jinny' Pande who's grandfather was a freedom fighter + ex-MP and grandmother an 3 x ex-MP. Jinny is hurled from her job as animation specialist (making kitanoo of Harpic) to fighting election on Pragati party (read Congress) ticket for Bittora, a constituency in Pavit Pradesh ( Read UP). Her opponent is Zain Altaf Khan of IJP (Read BJP), an ex-royal of Bittora and her childhood sweetheart, who she still lusts.

Will she fight the election? Will she win? Do Jinny and Zhain become enemies? The story has twists, real politiking, horse trading, betrayal and magnanimity.

Jinny's state of always being in two minds, being torn between politics and love is portrayed well. Her love-hate relationship with Zhain is the base of the story. A number if characters are based on real life figures like Sonia, Varun, Modi etc.

The pace of story is slow.Zhain seems to be always 2 steps ahed of Jinny. Sometimes you wonder wheather Jinny is really smart. Although the election is for Loksabha, the canvas seems smaller and appears like a Vidhansabha election instead.

This is Anuja's 2nd novel after 'Zoya factor' where she has depicted emotions of modern day young Indian lady very well. (It has become her USP).
Although it is an OK read, this novel does not raise to the heightened expectations after 'Zoya factor'