Two mysteries for the price of one!
New Delhi [India], July 21: Ankana, the protagonist, lands a deal to finish her famous half-brother’s unfinished novel, who met an untimely demise. Why does she land with such a sweet deal? Because she is an aspiring author herself, a romance genre one, and quite unsuccessful at that. But the catalyst, Krishav, the literary agent, trusts his instincts and believes she can do a great job replacing her brother.
The beginning of the novel lays out too many open pieces. I was sure that the author, Santosh Vishwanath, would struggle to close out all the open threads successfully by the end of it. I was surprisingly proven wrong. By the novel’s end, all the pieces fit like a puzzle, or should I say, rhymed like a well-written poem.
While Santosh awes the readers with his two mysteries – I must say that one of the mysteries stumped me and kept me guessing till the reveal – what also stood out for me is how he has weaved in other emotions like humour, romance, sibling relationship dynamics, a struggling author’s frustration and self-doubt, amongst others, seamlessly into the main storyline.
The character arcs were notable, too. I was impressed by how beautifully the main lead, Ankana, discovers things about herself, about her half-brother, whom she’d not met since childhood, and also about her love to write mysteries, coming out of her cocoon to become a beautiful butterfly by the end. The author has thought through minor aspects and has done justice to the little things – Ankana’s banter with her best friend Sujna, her arguments with Krishav, her creatively intellectual conversations with a junior colleague, Javed, an upcoming Urdu poet. These exchanges made the story more real and relatable to me.
I loved An Author’s Secret, published by Nu Voice Press. I’m sure you will, too!
