A Silent Takeover by Sarvananda Chandrashekariah
I’m a sucker for mysteries and thrillers, especially a murder mystery. Add that with glamour world of film industry and the intrigue of investigative journalism makes for the perfect plot.
Blurb: On his 50th birthday, arrogant playboy superstar Raaj Kumar gets into a verbal scuffle with the media gathered outside his house who question his inability to maintain romantic relationships. He decides to take a sabbatical and disappears off the grid to Chikkamagaluru.
Suhaasini, an intern at tabloid Muthodlur Blitz is assigned a difficult task – to track down Raaj and get an exclusive interview. Her research into Raaj’s life uncovers a strange pattern; ill-fate follows every official ex-girlfriend of Raaj–each one either becomes mentally unstable or dies under mysterious circumstances. Determined to solve this mystery, Suhaasini vows to unravel this sinister web, unearthing dark secrets and evil schemes along the way.
As she gets closer to the truth, the death of key players and an attack to silence her only drives Suhaasini to keep on digging. Will she succeed? Will the culprit be brought to justice? And what will be the cost of her persistence to expose the truth?
Review:
I’m a sucker for mysteries and thrillers, especially a murder mystery. Add that with glamour world of film industry and the intrigue of investigative journalism makes for the perfect plot.
We follow the story of Suhaasini, an intern at tabloid Muthodlur Blitz, as she tries to uncover the mystery behind the superstar Raaj Kumar and the mysterious deaths of his ex girlfriends. Why are all of Raaj Kumar’s ex girlfriends either dead or mentally unstable? Can Suhaasini uncover the truth?
Initially I was unsure about the plot because media poking their heads in a star’s personal life is a common occurrence. I side with the stars wanting privacy but the book made it seem like the media was in the right and the star was wrong for not wanting to discuss his love life. It makes sense here considering the mystery involved but I still would’ve preferred a plot where Suhaasini gets involved in a slightly different way.
The book kept me on the edge and guessing the killer at the very end. The spiritual themes of the book was unexpected. I will not give any spoilers by mentioning exactly what it was but it came out of nowhere. It definitely made the story more interesting.
There were many references which only Kannadigas or those who live in Karnataka would know and I loved them. Ah reading about manglore bajji ( ಮಂಗಳೂರು ಬಜ್ಜಿ) made we ant to badly eat some. I suggest that meanings to some of these can be mentioned at the end of the book like a glossary.
Another round of editing and proofreading would’ve helped to cut out unnecessary details and improve the narration. The story starts with the focus on Raaj Kumar and his 50th birthday and then shifts to Suhaasini. It would have been nice to start off from Suhaasini ‘s perspective. Some of the side characters like Randheer could’ve been developed more. There was a lot of banter between Suhaasini and her mother which could’ve been cut.
The death of key characters, the slow unraveling, the investigative journalism were all well done. I especially appreciate the inclusion of love interest for Suhaasini as it provided some well needed comic relief in a mostly serious book.
Overall, it was a well written murder mystery that kept me hooked till the very end.
🌟🌟🌟.8
Thanks to the author for the book.
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