Assassins by Mukul Deva

"Assassins" by Mukul Deva. This book is published by Forge books in 2015 and has 416 pages. This is Book 2 of Ravinder Gill series. Book 1 was titled 'The dust will never settle' in India and 'Weapon of vengeance' in USA.

Ravinder Gill had resigned and is trying to come to terms with his life & his daughter's death at his hands. Sisters of Benazir (SOB), a terrorist organization lead by Fatima (Benzir's niece), has contracted assassinations of Pervaiz Masharrat (Dictator of Pakistan at the time of Benzir's assassination) and Abid Zardosi (Benzir's husband), in India, to Leon Binder as they were masterminds of Benazir's murder.

Binder happenes to be a very close friend of Sir Edward Kingsley (Director of MI6) and Ravinder Gill during their college days. Gill accepts to lead the taskforce to prevent the assassinations on Indian soil. Can he stop Binder or will he be humiliated again? What's in the past? What score has remained unsettled? What happens to SOB?

Entire story takes place in six days. There are twenty odd chapters in each day. Some of the chapters are only a page long and some only a few lines long. It's an intelligent chapterization.

Although story is good some things keep nagging the seasoned readers. Thus the story becomes semi engaging. It's unbelievable that a hardened assassin, chief of a terrorist organization and a terrorist mole in Indian intelligence talk freely over unsecured phones using real names (I had same observation on author's previous books as well) and that an assassin meets his employer in person in open. Use of WhatsApp and Dropbox for exchanging sensitive information is also baffling. This is recklessness. The assassin spelling his name backward for his most important identity is laughable.

Generally the protagonists in thrillers are depicted as impeccable superhumans. Here Mukul had given them touches that are more like common humans (e.g. The assassin has a stomach upset, he sleeps in unsecured location due to exhaustion, Gill is ill at ease with computers etc.). Gill, the assassin and the mole all forget to do something vital every now and then that allows the story to go on.

Vishal is shown as an orphan who does not know his parents, then how come he has got a cousin? Looks like an avoidable error.

Pakistani characters are based on real life figures. Author has altered the names only slightly making it apparent, even for a naive reader. Benzir's assassination is described in great detail.

A new thing is a terrorist organization (SOB - Pun intended?) run by women, a sisterhood. However it's not clear why head of such an organization behaves in amateurish way. Binder accepting the assignment despite knowing of the leak and despite having a bad feeling about it is also inexplicable. A professional assassin who has 36 hits to his credit suddenly throws all caution to the wind for the sake of revenge, not convincing.

Ravinder Gill thrillers seem to be a personal matter for Gill. In first book it was his daughter and in this it's his one time best friend. His past haunts him and gives him nightmares. It makes him more human. He also loses his close family member in each book. At this rate, the series can not go beyond three books.

Why is the book titled Assassins? Not clear. Probably a more appropriate title would have been Assassinations!

An OK book, not a must read.

Blood red sari by Ashok Banker

"Blood red sari" by Ashok Banker. This book is published by HarperCollins in 2012 and has 300 pages.

Three stories run in parallel. These are stories of three ladies. Anita B. has lost her best friend and is returning from Mumbai to Trivendrum. She finds that her family is trying to kill her. Sheila Ray, an ex investigator, runs a gym in Salt Lake City of Kolkata. She find herself out of business, out of livelihood and declared pariah within a span of two hours. Nachiketa is fighting against in-laws who assaulted her and left her handicapped for life. She finds her office burned, her assistant murdered and herself abandoned by friends with suggestion of psychiatric treatment.

The common thread between them is that each one has been sent a yellow manila envelop upon Lalima's instructions when she was killed.

What's in the envelop? Why is it so important? Who are 'they'? What do they want? Why are they after the three ladies?

This is an all female (main) character novel. It's a curious mix of females. A physically challenged lawyer, a lesbian investigator who was brutally raped when she was 15 years old and an ex investigator and gym owner who was also a victim of brutality. Despite the abuses, they are highly independent and capable women. Incidentally the three protagonists had appeared in previous novel or stories of Ashok Banker.

Ashok Banker has written a gripping story. You are hooked to it and want to know what happens next. Readers get a peek into the past of three main characters but do not get to know it all. The seemingly innocuous lives of the three women are shattered by an external force that is far stonger than any one of them.

Ashok has left a number of loose ends in the book as to what happens to the three protagonists, how did Lalima come into possession of the documents about the biggest conspiracy and business of all. What happens after the book ends.

Apparently this is all deliberate because this book is the first of the series of four. The lose ends will be tied in subsequent books. The human trafficking and terror angle makes a late entry in the book but the reasoning and justification given is not very convincing. Probably more will come in subsequent books. Infact that should be the main theme of subsequent books.

A good book. Read if you also intend to read remaining three, when published.

Act of terror by Marc Cameron

"Act of terror", a novel by Marc Cameron. This is his 2nd book after 'National Security'.

America faces strange attacks. The attacks are perpetrated by seemingly American citizens having no link to terrorism and working in reputed institutes like Airforce, FBI, CIA etc.

Who are these people? Why are they doing this? What has it to with an orphanage at Tajikistan -Afganistan border? Who is behind this? Will America survive?

Jericho Quinn is tasked to find out. There is an attempt on the life of his daughter and ex-wife. A new character of Veronica Garcia, an American with Cuban mother and Russian father, is introduced. There is a hint of romance between them at the end.

Story takes place in USA, China, Tajikistan and Afganistan. This book also has motorcycle chases. In the climax Quinn jumps from a chopper riding bike. Little too far fetched.

Pace of story is not uniform. Reader tends to loose interest a couple of times. Although the book is not bad, the raised expectations after first book, are not fulfilled.