Book Review: Baramulla Bomber By Clark Prasad

When you look at the cover of the book you will see two eyes staring at you (still no idea whose eyes they are). Then there is a symbol of AUM- the primordial sound around which the plot is set. And just above it, is the caption which declares ‘SCIENCE FICTION ESPIONAGE THRILLER’. These are the descriptions  of the cover page of Baramulla Bomber. Baramulla Bomber, the debut thriller by Clark (Suraj) Prasad is the first of the Svastik Trilogy. Published by Niyogi Books, it is truly an espionage thriller involving multiple intelligence agencies around the world. Following the path of Dan Brown and Ashwin Sanghi, Mr. Prasad has also got a lot of research done for his books. But the book doesn’t get boring as there are only the necessary details. The book had initially been published in Amazon’s Createspace.

Summary And Plot

A blast rips of the meeting of a group of 13 who call themselves the Chos Skoyng (Guardians). But Vishwanath Harshvardhan Rathore knew something horrible was going to happen. So he had instructed Abhimanyu Kashyap to do two things. First, to help those who have survived the blast and second, to track down the Haider family. Abhimanyu Kashyap becomes the Defence Minister of India and also tracks down the Haider family.

      Something mysterious has happened in Shaksgam Valley, possibly the testing of a sonic weapon created by the Nobel laureate Dr. Nasir Raja. General Pervez Hussain and General Chan have grouped with Dr. Raja to make Project Babylon a success.  But Indian Home Minister Agastya Rathore seems to know more than what he claims. The burden of saving India now lies on his shoulders.

     Mansur Haider is a god fearing, aspiring cricketer from Baramulla, who like all others, wishes to play for India.  What has he got to do with Project Babylon? Why are Adolf and other intelligence agencies tracking him?  Is he being used, to accomplish Project Babylon?

Characters

      Baramulla Bomber has a lot of characters, from   Mansur    Haider (the protagonist) to Kurt.  Mr. Prasad has used all his characters very efficiently. Every single character has contributed to the story (including Kasha and Ann). Mr. Prasad has left no leaves unturned. The names he has given his characters are also superb and they suit the characters well. For example, Adolf Silfverskiod is a perfect name for an intelligence officer from Sweden and the name has also got a certain degree of command. The other characters include Aahana, Carina, Jalal, Aftab and many more.

Conclusion

      The book is fine. Even though it doesn’t have many elements of suspense (as we already know the villains), it sure has some surprises in the climax.  Mr. Prasad has merged cricket, religion, physics and history very well in his debut, and this book has a lot of mysteries still to be solved. What had actually happened in Kashmir?  Why is Mansur Haider so important? Does a cosmic religion really exist? All these may be answered in the second of the trilogy. Second of the trilogy has been named ‘Consultant’. Keenly waiting for its release.

 

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