Skip to main content

Book Review: The Seventh Cup by Nitesh Jain

The Seventh Cup by Nitesh Jain is a different-league murder mystery with amazing concepts in between. The story shuttles mainly between Switzerland and Goa, India. The novel doesn’t open with a murder or crime scene, rather in a typical way where a guy named Avinash Roy sips coffee at a frequented café, at a particular place in Zurich. Exactly at the seventh cup of his coffee, he gets into something clumsy that people around begins noticing him. Well, he is writing the last chapter of a book, ‘In Search of Truth’. This book is about conflict of Religion, Science, and Man.

There at Zurich, in that café, Mr. Roy stumbles upon Verona Schmidt. He likes her. She teases him as SRK. At their meeting a lot of palaver about India and Bollywood goes on, as it was obvious as Verona was an aspiring actress. Anyway, there Mr. Roy plays with her by confusing her into Mind Transportation game. It is a lengthy novel, so the sub stories and sweeps in at are at crossroads. One needs to read this book in complete piece with their own peace. The story of Avinash and Verona’s one-sided love seems overdone and shallow; however, little did readers know that the same guy gets into another-level intensity to drive the plot ahead.

Next, you read Verona has been missing for over eight months. The police are searching her. Avinash was in love with her, though she was partially inclined to him. Verona had a so-called boyfriend, named Kevin. The love triangle gets complicated, again the book over and again appeals to read it completely.

At the façade of the book, Mr. Roy, in Zurich, is writing his book. He claims that he’s been continuously in touch with Verona. They talk, laugh, gossip and so on. Paradoxically, when the detective Susanne takes the case of missing persons in Switzerland, she has to solve the Verona mystery first. The story is long and once one is in, he/she cannot afford ignoring it.

The story has many fronts but Avinash Roy is always there, like banter in the backdrop. There are concepts introduced and explained, in snatches, like law of attraction, and law of universe. The author has brilliantly crafted this murder mystery and it remains under the veils as who could be that killer?

Ria is dead–a student from Goa. Avinash and Verona first met in Goa in the HOST College owing to some college student exchange program. So you got the lead as how Avinash came to Zurich in pursuit of love? Back in Goa, they developed good sub-audition, especially when they were a part of a drama.

There are many threads and each one is entwined to one another. It is a story where you may begin empathizing with the killer, not knowing his/her real intentions. Whatsoever, Avinash’s love for Verona was real and he went to limits to prove that.

But the question remains, why is this novel a murder mystery? Does Verona’s disappearance mean she is dead or something else has happened to her? There is the detective Susanne. What will happen when she comes across Ria and Avinash? For sure, a fresh and contemplative murder mystery awaits readers’ attention.

Nitesh’s narration and the way he unfurled events is commendable. However, at times, he put a lot of casual romance between Avinash and Verona. The length of the book could have been a bit shorter; otherwise the way it turns out on the lead character Avinash is something riveting. Overall, a lovely novel much different than today’s genres.

Buy from Amazon.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Poem Summary: Where The Mind Is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore

Poem by Rabindranath Tagore: Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. Short Summary: This poem is written by Rabindranath Tagore during pre-independence days, when India was a colony of the British. The underlying theme of the poem is absolute freedom; the poet wants the citizens of his country to be living in a free state. According to the poem, we see that the poet is expressing his views there should be a country, like where people live without any sort of fear and with pure dignity…they should
67 comments
Read more

Book Review: The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond

Among all Ruskin Bond books, The Blue Umbrella has, so far, gathered immense applaud from readers and critics alike.  This is a short novel, but the kind of moral lessons it teaches to us are simply overwhelming. This is a story of Binya, a poor little girl living with her mother and an elder brother, Bijju, in a small hilly village of Garhwal. One day while herding her two cows back home, she stumbles upon some city people enjoying the picnic in the valley. She is enthralled to see them well-groomed and rich. She craves to be one like them and among many other things of their, a blue frilly umbrella catches her attention. She begins craving for it. On the other hand, the city people get attracted by her innocent beauty and the pendant in her neck. The pendant consists of leopard’s claw – which is considered a mascot widely in the hills. Binya trades her pendant off with the blue umbrella. The blue umbrella is so much beautiful that soon it becomes a topic of conversation fo
63 comments
Read more

Poem Summary: Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Ozymandias is a short poem of fourteen lines written by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The concurrent theme of the poem is that nothing remains intact and same forever in this world. Even the brightest of metal, one day decays with passage of time. The throne name of Egyptian King Ramesses is Ozymandias. It was his dearest desire to preserve himself forever by building a huge statue that he thought would never tumble down. Stanza 1: I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; Summary: The poet narrates the poem through the eyes of a traveler who seems to have come back from a remote and far-away land, referring to Egypt. The traveler r
23 comments
Read more