The Elephants in the Room by Suraj Laxminarayanan
Genre: Crime Thriller
Published: 11 October 2018 by The Write Place
Swathi’s Rating: 4/5
Verdict: Completely engaging, multi-layered suspenseful page-turner.
Hey peeps!
I’ve a great Indian book recommendation today. It’s a crime thriller and could completely immerse you into reading. I will give you a hint: it’s a robbery based in Chennai! This book is for all of my friends in Chennai and fans of Bank Robbery thrillers. Go ahead and read the plot.
Plot:
A ragtag group of friends are planning a bank heist to end their cash crunch. Novices to crime, they are driven more by emotions than skill – their plan seems fool proof, or so they think.
In another part of the city, a gang of seasoned dacoits has botched up a job and now owes money to the local crime lord. They have to either pay up or pay for it with their lives – and time is running out …
In a bizarre twist of fate, both these groups are brought face-to-face. Trapped in a situation beyond the realm of their planning and experience, they must think on their feet, form quick alliances and rally behind an unlikely leader.
Set against the backdrop of Chennai, where men sing gaana songs in kuppams (fishing hamlets) nestled against swanky glass-fronted buildings and life-size cutouts of film stars and politicians, a story of love, greed, friendship, fate and the absurdity of the human condition unfolds.
Author Bio:
Suraj is a big fan of crime and mystery thrillers. Movies in the genre of crime and suspense inspired him to take up writing on similar subjects. He started by writing movie reviews. He lives in Bangalore and is a software engineer by profession. His hobbies include reading and playing tennis. Readers can connect with Suraj through the website www.authorsuraj.com.
AmazonSwathi’s Review:
The first thing about this book that I found both enjoyable and discomforting is it’s sheer volume. The bulkiness of the book matched its title to an Elephant’s size but I was a little worried about the amount of detailing involved in those 598 pages. Yes, that’s how long the book really is! But, my curiosity got the better of me and I really liked the robbery based plot and started reading it right away!
The story involves a gang of local youngsters who plan to rob a bank, and while doing so they’re met with two more groups, all of whom have a different plan of their own. Naturally causing chaos and fights between the local gangs.
The narration is from a third person POV shifting between the activities inside the bank and the cop scenario outside to contain the situation. ‘Elephants In The Room’ deals with Lies, betrayal, death, jealousy, and the fight for survival.
One thing I really liked about the book is the number of characters involved in the plot and the effort taken by the author to make sure none of them is titled the protagonist of the story! Yes, I was enthralled to believe it too. There are a lot of characters that support the plot and appear only for a few instances.
Final thoughts:
When I told this story to my husband who is a real fan of Robbery based thrillers, he said this is a perfect movie material. He said, if made into a feature Film, it could be structured with just the right amount of thrill and even an ounce of romance to spice it all up! I think he is right and hope to see a movie come out soon!
I received a copy from Writers Melon in exchange of my honest opinion. All opinions are solely mine and unbiased.
