Book Review: The Monk (Akshay Shroff)

Title: The Monk Author: Akshay Shroff Genre: Crime Thriller Publisher: Gargi Publishers Chapters: 14 Pages: 217 Price: INR 195.00 ISBN: 978-93-84382-16-2 Rating: 5.0/5.0   Book Review The Monk is a story of a young boy Lakshay Gaitonde, a wannabe cricketer, who loses his father at an early age. Deeply touched with the incident, his tender mindset goes through a traumatic transformation which prompts him to bid adieu to his dream of sportsmanship. The story of the fiction has been beautifully yarned in the backdrop of serial bomb blasts that occurred in 1993 in Mumbai. The protagonist Lakshay Gaitonde, the only son of sub-inspector Rajaram Gaitonde, pledges to uproot the terrorism in the country. He follows footprints of his beloved father and becomes the ACP in Maharashtra Police. Before Lakshay could settle his life, he loses his mother and his fiancée in the serial train blasts that shook the economic hub of India i.e. Mumbai. The recurrence of terror attacks and killing of his parents and his fiancée led him to mend his directions and he comes up with a diabolical plan to wipe out the terrorism. What falls next in the story has been deliberately left here for the sake of the interest of the readers. No doubt, the story is beautifully written. Evolution of characters has come up brilliantly amidst the environment prevailing in the fiction that coherently describes terrorism and it deep rooted network. At places the author has been successful in amusing his readers by introducing endless characters who appear momentarily in the scenes referentially. That clearly reflects the wit and level of research the author has carried out to justify his work. He has also nailed his readers with his immense knowledge of arms, ammunition and their modus-operandi which has really left them awestruck. As far has the question of who-is-who is concerned, the author tried his level best to keep the secret undisclosed. On the contrary, a wary reader can circumvolve the characters and their traits for an easy speculation. At last, I would recommend “The Monk” a worth read that can keep the reader engaged and intact till the last page.]]>