Book review : NeverEnd by Blake Rudman

 

NeverEnd 
by 
Blake Rudman
HellBound Books, 2025
Genre: Fiction 


I have read many novels but the prologue of this one was so shocking that it pulls the reader in and keeps them reading the book. Nothing is predictable as all of it comes as a surprise. 

Dr. Jon Edom leaves a medical conference on the relation between violence in society and addictive online gaming  only to reach home to find his wife Rochelle and his two young sons, Luke and Paul  have disappeared into thin air. When he files the complaint, the police suspect Jon though he was miles away during the disappearance. That there are no corpses is puzzling. Step in Rochelle's family who run a cult thanks to Rochelle programming a violent addictive game which brings them loads of money. Then there are the  enemies of the cult, and with biblical references, you are in for a ride. 

An addictive role playing game. This book reminded me of "Blue Whale" game which made adults do crazy things in real life until it was banned by multiple governments. It also shows the danger of priming in the police department that destroys objective investigation. Priming is  a social psychological term which means focusing on something/someone because that is what has been made prominent. But is the story just about that, absolutely not.

Rudman gives a masterclass in writing - how to create tension and terror with simple characterization. He creates chaos without usual terror tricks like spirits and gore as the reader is pulled into the story with its ever increasing tension. As a reader, you know something is off  from the beginning but you are not left to ponder what it could be as the next piece of chaos is thrown in. You watch characters unravel at a speed that leaves you dazed and the end is a zinger, though it is not the end. The writing is so crisp and visual that you feel you are seated next to Dr. Jon Edom. 

If you are in the mood for a dark thriller page turner, this book would be it.

You can buy the book here  on Amazon 

Book Review : Elegance and Evil - a fab weekend read

 

Elegance and Evil
by DK Coutant
The Wild Rose Press
Genre: Fiction

Cleo Cooper is on a sabbatical in Santa Fe. She misses her home in Hawaii but is shocked to learn that one of the volcanoes have erupted and many of her friends are affected there.. Then one of her acquaintances in Santa Fe, Ginger, is found dead in the desert. The death is by heat stroke according to the police but is it?

The suspects range from the son of a Russian spy to a Saudi Arabian woman who works with abused women in a Center run by Ginger and her.While the FBI is on the case, Cleo Cooper does her own investigation. The moment she begins to investigate, someone tries to kill her. It is not just once multiple attempts are made to kill her but why?

Zipping between Hawaii and Santa Fe, the author ensures logic drives the narrative instead of common prejudice against a particular nationality in a mystery thriller. It was refreshing to read and I learnt in the end, the author is also a geopolitical forecaster. No wonder. 

The writing is crisp, fast paced. It would be the perfect read if you wish to curl up with a book for the weekend. 

To buy the book , go here Amazon



 

Book review : Black Fox One

 

Black Fox One
by
Elyse Hoffman
Genre : Fiction


Ava and Jonas are teenage sweethearts and friends. They truly believe Hitler is the right candidate and will do good for Germany. One fine day, Ava and her entire family disappears and no one in the neighbourhood knows what happened to them. Distraught, Jonas joins the SS and while trying to uncover the Black Fox network of gentiles and Jews who help the Jews escape the holocaust, he catches many and send them to their deaths. Jonas believes in the cause as he searches for Ava who feels he lost because of the Jews. He is given the nickname Fox Hunter by Reinhard Heydrich.

Jonas is given a mission - he has to hunt and capture Black Fox One who will be executed when they open the Fox Farm which will house most of the Black Foxes. Will he capture Black Fox One or will he get captured and killed? Will he find Ava finally or will Ava find him?  Read the book to find out.

What I liked about the book is though the Black Fox network didn't exist, Reinhard Heydrich did and he was nicknamed as the "Man with the Iron Heart" by none other than Hitler. Most people know about Goebbels, Himmler and Hitler but don't know much about Reinhard Heydrich or Alfred Rosenberg because their area of operation was Eastern Europe. The author uses these people in her books to shed more light on what actually happened like how a ship filled with Jews were turned away by both USA and Canada and were forced to return to Europe. While the UK took some of them in, the rest died. This happens in most genocide situations worldwide like the Sri Lankan genocide of Tamils in 2009 when a boat full of Tamils escaped but Australian govt.  refused to let them in and most of them died in international waters. All were democratic nations who refused help.

The book is fast paced and shows how normal, decent people can quickly turn against a people following a minority religion in a democratic country when right wing hate filled leaders are elected. The propaganda machine of the right wing makes it such that you are patriotic or anti-national. The quick dehumanizing of the "other" leads to majority of people unleashing violence on a scale that is unimaginable. That this is now happening worldwide across nations makes this book almost contemporary non-fiction.

If you wish to buy the book, go here ➤  Amazon

Before Baahubali - The Rise of Sivagami

The Rise of Sivagami
by Anand Neelakantan
492 pages, Westland, 2017
Genre : Fiction
Language : English and mutliple Indian languages.


With people going mad about Baahubali2 - the conclusion, and social media pointing out the box office record - 1000 crores in nine days already, I am sure the director must be a happy man. However, I would suggest, people like me who have not seen the movie yet, read the book first to get a sense of people,  place and its history. This was missing in Baahubali 1.

How did a casteless society descend into slavery and child murder? Why are the corrupt allowed to live while the innocent murdered without question ? How did Mahishmathi descend to such a level and to protect what secret? Why is skin color which was unimportant before now so important? Neelakantan asks and answers these questions and more in his book, The Rise of Sivagami.

Sivagami is an orphan whose father, Devarayya is killed and branded a traitor. Her only aim in life is to demolish the royal family and seek revenge for her father's death. Neelakantan tells the story of orphan Sivagami and her rise to the level of Bhoomipathi - a title her father once held.  By telling the story of Sivagami and her  friend Kamakshi, we are also taken through the stories of young slaves obedient Kattappa and his rebellious brother Shivappa who longs for freedom, the young princes Bijjala and Mahadeva, siblings who are complete opposites in character, the original tribes who had been driven out of their land and are forced to take refuge in the forest by betrayal and not by war, the pirates who raid villages, rape women and kidnap children so they can be sold in the kingdom while the royal family and the bureaucrats of the kingdom turn a blind eye. It is a place where loyal people are killed while the corrupt are rewarded. What is damning secret in the document that Sivagami finds in the ancient language which she cannot read?

The pace is fast. The prose is poetic at many points but predictable at times if you had already seen Baahubali 1 in which some of the scenes slowly makes sense now. Since this is a story of three generations and a horrible secret hidden from the people of the kindgom, I look forward to reading the sequel as the book ends abruptly with a teaser - Sivagami now has to kill her father's best friend or be killed. And how does she go from being the destroyer of the royal family to becoming its Raja Matha?

Go here to buy the book

Flight to Pakistan

Flight to Pakistan
By Azam Gill
356 pages, Bewrite Books
Available on Bewrite Books
Price varies depending on format -- paperback and e-book.
ISBN: 1-904492-26-6
Genre: Fiction/ Adventure/Thriller

From the allies of Lahore to the mafia operations in Boston, from the killing fields of Vietnam to schools in London, Gill manages to tell a multilayered, multidimensional story of intrigue, first love, murder, caste, and honor that spans continents, race, and families. For most readers, it is inevitable to compare it with Mario Puzo's epic novel The Godfather. However, the author tends to outdo Puzo by adding several other dimensions.

Sirdar Ali Shah a.k.a. Dara, a Harvard Business School graduate runs the prostitution business in the city of Lahore, Pakistan after the death of his father. However, why does a Harvard Business School graduate chose to return to Pakistan and take over the family mafia business when he could have easily got a job in one of the top Fortune 500 companies? Read the book to find out.

It is not often you get to read Asian fiction that does not use the Western stereotypes or the colonial setting of the East. This book is a rare gem as the author manages to tell the story, free from the stereotypical settings and characters. Your senses tend to come alive as you read the book and irrespective of where you grew up, the story will move you.

The author is a former Pakistani Army officer who had to seek political asylum in France because he wrote a book on Army reforms which angered the Pakistani government.

Extremely visual in style, I hope it would be made into a movie soon.

Copyright © 2007 by Deepa Kandaswamy , All rights reserved.