Skip to main content

Book Review – Caution! Twists Ahead! by Amresh Srivastava

Caution! Twists Ahead! by Amresh Srivastava is an intriguing collection of 7 short stories. The book delves deep in the sub genres of crime and suspense thriller. In a sense, most of the stories lend a crime noir narrative, however, with moral conscience. Though the level of crime isn’t sanguinary, the book lays emphasis on socially prevalent scams, frauds, and cons that most of the time went unnoticed.


Since the author hails from the banking sector, he leverages his background to take readers on some of the finely chiseled con stories that took place in the banking ambience by the staff and outsiders.

The first story is about a suitcase that goes missing from a corrupt senior government officer while traveling. This is a typical story of urban builders who collaborate with related officials for the benefit of both the parties. The irony in the story is that money doesn’t fuel everyone’s greed. The auto rickshaw driver has a heart touching story to stay away from the suitcase.

The next story goes as stealthy as it comes. It is about a family, two sisters…a tragedy strikes down one, the other sister turns a shrewd opportunistic to usurp everything that is inherently not her. But the fate had stored up something else for her. What?

The longest story in the book is about a lottery conman. It could be reckoned as a novella. A bank manager is caught between the dilemma of fate and duty. He is cheated by a lottery winner; however, the bank manager has to become a detective to save his job and honour? If con stories entice you, this one is a must read for you separately.

The book differs from typical hardcore crime fiction because it places a strong emphasis on the social and personal backdrop of the crime. The author subtly examines the result of family pressure, social injustice, immoral activities, and lack of ethics that often leads to patronizing the criminal behaviour.

Many stories are built around the scaffold of banking sector, ambience, people, and customers. And these are the stories that run robust with the skeins of crime thriller. Backing on his brilliant narration skills, Amresh Srivastava decorates each story with a lethal combination of mystery, thrill, and the social background of the characters. In all stories, the characters are well-sketched, and sub plots are intricately designed. The pace is fast because storytelling is engaging, which makes this book a terrific page turner.

After reading the book, if you lend a thought to experience – it comes out that overall the collection is powerful, intriguing, and also provides food for thought. Readers will be deeply affected by this book due to Amresh’s personal experiences in the banking ecosystem and strong moral guide well accentuated by a Shlok from Gita at the end of every story.

Buy the book from Amazon/Kindle

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
64 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