It has been a
while that I have read a thriller, so bring it on. Aroon Raman’s ‘Skyfire’
is a good book, with all the history, mystery, and a roundup of poking and
prodding, the bits of love story and intelligence operations, it needs.
Well, I have pretty
much given you the basis of the story, but since I have not read, ‘The Shadow Throne’,
I guess I am missing out a little bit. Basically, it gives us a journalist,
Chandrasekhar, historian, Meenakshi and an intelligence operative, Syed Ali
Hassan, to handle it all.
The story begins in
2012, when there are abnormal weather disruptions across India, diseases
caused, child trafficking in the major cities and small kids from slums disappearing,
and quite the dash of violence, combined with surreptitious behaviour, all
around.
It begins with the disappearance
of a child, which Meenakshi and Chandra are handling when, the acid rain also
hits them and also with it, the Dharma Foundation, which is taking care of the
whole thing. I need to pause now, or I will just end up telling you the whole story.
It is with the arrival
of the brother - sister duo of Harshvardhan and Vaishali Dharma that the plot
takes on a new colour. Harsh is the NGO behind some of the work, which
Meenakshi wants to get done. While the Dharmas are enlisted in to help, and a
trip to Bhutan is on the cards, and we find ourselves there, the plot digs in
deeper.
Making sense of these
actions, are the three of them, when you are driven into the dark world of the
three nations of India, Pakistan and Bhutan. Of course, one cannot miss the
Hindi movie references and it is well, kind of taking it all in. That is a lot
of stories, rolled into one.
The story moves on, but
with the ultimate twist brought in by Vaishali Dharma, the story plus all its
political and administrative twists, and the never ending war of words, between
India and Pakistan, we have so much more to be wrapped into this review.
So, the end was well,
not too unexpected. But it was Meenakshi Pirzada, who won me over, with her instinctive
eye, and a brilliant mind, who solves the mystery, explaining it ever so
clearly. Well, I will not give out more though; I think I might just have…
You can Buy the Book, right here.
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