The Curse of Surya by Dev Prasad.

'The Curse of Surya' - A nice, thriller plot enough to keep you up on the edge!

A short review.

‘The Curse of Surya’ by Dev Prasad is a fictional plot that has been carved well out of the existing artifacts and the topography of India. A one-day plot pumped with sufficient twist and terror is a nice shot for a quick read.

The story starts with a whirl that is enough to flare some suspense which is well sprinkled all over the book. The author has intelligently blended his ingredients. The way in which he has put to use the religious and ancient city of Mathura, the historical significance of Agra and the over-looked facts of Rajkot is the hot-point of this book. Dev also has a significant insight of Singapore’s topography. The plot commences when Sangeeta Rao, a senior news correspondent at a media house based at Singapore is assigned an important and urgent work; to cover the state visit of the President of Singapore to India. She gets to know that her colleague, Tenzing who was assigned to cover this event is murdered in Mathura. Confused and determined to decode the mystery of Tenzing’s murder, she takes an immediate flight to India. After landing up in Agra and after falling at the first sight for Alan Davies, an undercover Interpol officer (she has no idea about this), she travels down to Mathura to attend All Religions Saints International Conference. The conference is a prime fantasy for almost everyone on the planet so as to a saint has planned to announce the location of ‘Shyamantaka’ a precious jewel which will shower richness upon its owner. The saint is killed during the conference, few bombs-blasts and Sangeeta and Alan are suspected to be fugitives. The entire Uttar-Pradesh police squad starts hunting for them.

They meet Anton Blanchard who fools them pretending to be helpful. The trio on their way to decipher the codes and trace the location of the jewel put all their sources to use. The climax is when SP Nisha Sharma who is behind these two ‘so-called’ terrorists’ faces the real light and discovers that she is being used.

The story is certainly fast-paced and gripping. The acumen of the author in spite of being an IT professional to assert and present the religious significance of Lord Krishna and stitch it with the story in a surgical manner is appealing. It hinted me the style of Dan Brown time and again. 

P. S - Another thing which I have liked is the font used in this book. Catchy!

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