Mr. M.C. Raj is a prolific author with various book-titles to his credit and with these labels come an aura and craftsmanship to his writing. His latest offering, The Crossbow Code is a novel that's set in the geographical locations of Vatican City (the home of Pope) and Mumbai and as exotic a location they could be, it's the narrative of the book that make them look mysteriously creepy. How many times can you possibly find The Pope talking to a commoner, that too from a Third World country like India which doesn't boast of a huge christian population either? Let me tell you from my experience that odds for that would be infinitely negative. But here we get to see one and one that's hugely engaging. It's an open secret that churches all over the world hide secrets and although many would find Dan Brown's works as heresy, they do tend to point towards an inconvenient truth. The concepts of Christianity that I have come to known thanks to the works of Kathleen McGowan, Mel Gibson and Martin Scorsese (and not from Catholic Bible) are narrated with poise by the author. Kris, the protagonist of the book, also finds himself in the company of two more personnel, haggard looking, later in one dilapidated building of Rome and they let him know not only the deeply buried secrets of Vatican City and Christianity but Hinduism too. Wonderful narrative. But the book doesn't only stop here with its suspense and mysteries for Pope is found murdered following a deeply disturbing discourse with Kris and now our hero is on the run. Has he really killed the Pope or is there someone else responsible for Pope's murder and now chasing his life too? You've gotta find that after making the purchase for reviews for suspense thrillers tend to act as SPOILERS!!!
I definitely found some negatives with the book. Usually when a book tries to synchronize the past of a character that has its own life with his/her present, it starts derailing. The first inconsistency shows up when Saul, one of the inhabitants of that dilapidated building, starts describing his association with birth of Christianity and leads us towards Hinduism and while doing that, relates Christianity, Judaism and Hinduism. He brings us anecdotes about Hinduism to let us know its influence over early-period Christianity but at the crucial juncture, abandons it completely and I for one found it very difficult to comprehend this entire subplot. There was nothing to read between the lines, so impact of this very interesting narrative got lost on me and left me in bad taste. Secondly, there are lack of literary nuances in the book. I want to ask the author/his publishing agency that how would he/it like to spell the word SIR? Would it be S-I-R (that's the right one) or S-A-R (that's the one I found spelled in the book)? Now had it been for a novice/debutante writer, I would have waved this mistake off but what about Mr. Raj who is a veteran of many book titles. That's the one mistake who put me off so badly that at that very juncture, I decided to drop it for good and yes, had it not been for an interesting premise led out by the author, I would definitely have followed my heart. Good for everyone though, rest of it came off pretty handy. Grammatical mistakes especially the use of punctuation marks and rest of follow up sentences need an experienced glance as well. Let's do the scoring now:
a) Achievement - 2/2
b) Language Skills - 1.5/2
c) Plot and Character Development - 2/3
d) Editing and Proofreading - 1/2
e) Book Cover, Page Quality and Blurb - 1/1
Total: 7.5/10; 3.5/5 on a Five-Point Scale
Verdict: The Crossbow Code is nowhere close to being called a flawless book but its fast pace and shrewd plotting keep the readers in suspense and that's where it fulfills its promise. It's undoubtedly one of the better works by an Indian author in suspense thriller genre in recent memory.
I definitely found some negatives with the book. Usually when a book tries to synchronize the past of a character that has its own life with his/her present, it starts derailing. The first inconsistency shows up when Saul, one of the inhabitants of that dilapidated building, starts describing his association with birth of Christianity and leads us towards Hinduism and while doing that, relates Christianity, Judaism and Hinduism. He brings us anecdotes about Hinduism to let us know its influence over early-period Christianity but at the crucial juncture, abandons it completely and I for one found it very difficult to comprehend this entire subplot. There was nothing to read between the lines, so impact of this very interesting narrative got lost on me and left me in bad taste. Secondly, there are lack of literary nuances in the book. I want to ask the author/his publishing agency that how would he/it like to spell the word SIR? Would it be S-I-R (that's the right one) or S-A-R (that's the one I found spelled in the book)? Now had it been for a novice/debutante writer, I would have waved this mistake off but what about Mr. Raj who is a veteran of many book titles. That's the one mistake who put me off so badly that at that very juncture, I decided to drop it for good and yes, had it not been for an interesting premise led out by the author, I would definitely have followed my heart. Good for everyone though, rest of it came off pretty handy. Grammatical mistakes especially the use of punctuation marks and rest of follow up sentences need an experienced glance as well. Let's do the scoring now:
a) Achievement - 2/2
b) Language Skills - 1.5/2
c) Plot and Character Development - 2/3
d) Editing and Proofreading - 1/2
e) Book Cover, Page Quality and Blurb - 1/1
Total: 7.5/10; 3.5/5 on a Five-Point Scale
Verdict: The Crossbow Code is nowhere close to being called a flawless book but its fast pace and shrewd plotting keep the readers in suspense and that's where it fulfills its promise. It's undoubtedly one of the better works by an Indian author in suspense thriller genre in recent memory.
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