Sandy Raman, stringer for the BBC, lives as a paying guest with the Sawants, a regular, quiet, Indian family. Or so she thought. Until she woke up to a woman with a knife … and a dark secret.
It is only after she runs a sting operation on a home for the differently abled that Sandy makes a connection between an institute acting as a front for something sinister and the strange family she lives with.
Chasing the truth up a trail of brutal murders, Sandy must evade the grasping clutches of a thriving sex racket and expose the predators before her time runs out.
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The blurb of the book really intrigued me. I had a couple of questions in my mind immediately after reading the blurb that I hoped reading the book would answer for me.
Sandy Raman stays as a paying guest with the Sawants, who come across as a normal Indian family. What was supposed to be an arrangement of convenience, turns into a dangerous situation for Sandy. The Sawants may not be the average family they pretend to be as Sandy wakes up to the secrets that she feels compelled to uncover. As she stumbles upon a human trafficking ring, Sandy has to outsmart her opponents in order to survive… And if she does manage to survive, she may have the scoop that can make her career!
What really works for the book is the plotline that is bound to tug at the readers heart. Human trafficking is rampant all over the world and I feel that it is one of the biggest evil in our society. For most parts it targets women and children who often do not have a support system. As such, the basic outline of the plot attracted me quite a bit. The author has added elements of surprise in the book that can engage its readers. Plus, there is a fair bit of thrills and action to keep the pages turning.
The one aspect of the book that I thoroughly enjoyed was the setting. Having lived in London for a couple of months, I could identify certain places and picturize the other places quite easily. My stay at London was an unforgettable experience and as such I have only fond memories of it. To revisit some of the familiar places through the pages of this book was quite fun.
The character of the protagonist is well developed. It was clear that Sandy was an opinionated and intellectual personality. Her code of honor and her ability to sift between what’s right and wrong kept her going in the book. They were also the qualities that made her stand out from the other characters in the book. The secondary characters kind of blend in with each other as they do not have much that separates them. They are all very ordinary.
The book however, failed to make a mark in its narrative. There are so many moments where information is delivered in a way that it made me think that the author added it as an afterthought. If it was just once or twice, it would have come across as a writing quirk and might have added to the narrative. Instead it weakened the rhythm. The other thing that did not work for me was the way some of the ‘incidents’ and ‘breakthroughs’ happened… felt like it was too simple or too easy.
Also, note that there was one specific scene that was quite explicit and could be a trigger for some.
Review Copy received from Harper Collins India
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