Ikshitkumar Solkar

Absolutely outrageous..!! The author has penned a crass indulgence in the name of a twist in the ending. The positive reviewers of this novel are a text book example of sycophants. The story starts with a persecuted mother-son duo who are on the brink of making a choice so as to which of the two countries available should they flee to. A choice is being made by a toss of a coin. An abrupt departure in the storyline made me backtrack two chapters, nothing made sense though. Nevertheless I decided to move on. It was only after another couple of chapters that I realised that there's a parallel narrative. Thence the ship (read plot) has set sail in the open seas, occasionally maneuvering through rough weathers, on the otherwise calm and beautiful journey. The approach of destiny induces excitement. But alas! It ends up in a Bermuda Triangle of sorts, mysteriously vanishing in broad daylight without a trace. I launched a rescue mission, retracing its route, trying to make sense of what happened, but finally found it at the bottom of the sea lying in utter wreck. Yes, this is what the novel is in the ending, a wreck. This novel is a classic case where the ending ruins the entire novel which was, until the ending, insightful, gripping, beautiful, adroit and what not. I guess it is my grave misfortune that this was my first Jeffrey Archer. I'm positively wary of another one and am quite unlikely to pick one up.