Book Review of Colours of Passion Penned By Sourabh Mukherjee

Hola Book Lovers!! *waves frantically*

Just wanted to let you all know that today I am not going to bore you all with my long list of words, er, I mean long reviews. Today I am going to keep it short because for the book which I am going to review today, it would be better if I don’t give away any kinds of details (also because I am felling a tad bit lazy :P). As long as you are kept in the dark, it would be better for you. Oh, it would be so much fun to see you all writhing in anticipation but you see, I have signed a non-disclosure form with myself!

Just kidding!! Okay, rant over! Let’s get down to the details.

I’ll let you on a sneak peek (because I am a good person :p).

Book Title: The Colours of Passion

Subtitle: Unravelling Dark Secrets behind the Limelight

Author: Sourabh Mukherjee

Format: Paperback

Total Number of Pages: 238

Publisher: Redomania

Publication Date: 1 Aug 2017

Genre: Mystery/Thriller/Suspense

Language: English

SYNOPSIS

Who killed Tollywood heart-throb Hiya Sen?

Within days of her fairy-tale wedding with Manav Chauhan, the dashing young entrepreneur, Hiya Sen, the reigning queen of Tollywood, is brutally raped and murdered by three men. As ACP Agni Mitra investigates into the high-profile murder, he meets Neha Awasthi, with whom Manav broke his engagement to marry Hiya, Neha’s father Deepak Awasthi, who was eyeing business benefits through the alliance, Mayank Kapoor, an alcoholic model, and Rituja Bose, the diva who had reigned over Tollywood over the past decade. When two more murders connected with the case make headlines, it’s time for Agni to find answers to perplexing questions and unveil shocking truths.

The Colours of Passion breezes through Kolkata’s glamorous world of industrialists, movie stars, models and fashion designers laced with drug addiction and illicit liaisons, with a heart-wrenching tragedy at its core.

Review By Sohinee Dey

The Colours of Passion is one of those books that would make you severely uncomfortable but you couldn’t resist to complete it. The only thing which you can do is to keep going until you reach the end. That’s exactly what I did. The premise starts with a disturbing rape scene of the regnant doyenne Hiya Sen, who is raped and then murdered mercilessly and at the time of investigation three miscreants are found to be related to the murder. Along with the “darling of the city”, her husband of a fortnight, the business magnate Manav Chauhan and the chauffeur who was accompanying them that night, gets severely beaten up. This opening scene was so graphically written (not as much as 13 reasons why) that it made me shudder a little bit. The actual story begins with the investigation of the murder by the investigator ACP Agni Mitra along with his co-investigator, Arya. As they tread on dark waters and unravel new secrets, all the clandestine secrets spills forward into the spotlight and are laid bare for reader’s scrutiny.

As they say, there’s always more to than what meets the eye, this book lives up to this phrase. With each chapter, a new link towards the actual murder is disclosed, all the while making the story rise on the interesting meter.

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What made it compelling was the fact that the story was progressing slowly as new characters were introduced into the plotline unlike other books where the plot seems to be stuck. Another thing which I would like to mention here is that the characters were developing with each new chapter and though they each of them were introduced suddenly, the author managed to give them enough space into the plotline to make their mark; every character had something to contribute to the storyline.

Agni acts as a pseudo protagonist in the absence of Hiya Sen on whom the whole plot is set. So, in the story Agni acts as a protagonist but if I think of it, Hiya had to be the main character if she had been alive. The character of Agni was really well thought of. He had been shown to be witty and thoughtful along with being able to think from all perspectives: the qualities of a true detective, indeed!

As the story progresses and as I got acquainted with the characters, I was suspecting all of them to be the culprit. Mukherjee has crafted the plot in such a way that you would be suspicious of every single character and that’s where the frustration lies and also the thrilling experience to get to know who the actual criminal is; and that’s how you make a book a ‘page turner’. Also, the chapters were really short (1-3 pages) and each ended with a cliffhanger and that is what is going to keep you going.

The author managed to give enough reasonings for the characters’ behaviour that at one point you would be sympathizing with them and the next you would want to throw daggers at them (literally). Once you step into this meandering course of journey, you are going to be in an emotional turmoil but in the end it will pay off.

There were instances when I was truly confused as to what was happening because the actions were too fast, the chapters too short…the pace took me by surprise. No, that’s not a bad thing nor am I complaining, even though I sound like I am :p. The end though, I really didn’t see that coming! Oh boy, was it a twist! I’ll just leave a hint for you *wink*. Just know that it is a person who you might start to like at first but in reality (fictitious reality of course) he had been exploiting people just to save himself and is nothing more than a wimp.

The best part of the book was the suspense. There were no loose ends in the book. Even if you try harder, I bet you won’t be able to point towards the actual culprit. Sourabh Mukherjee has taken care of all the nitty-gritty details so that the storyline doesn’t lose its suspense.

The Colours of Passion by Sourabh Mukherjee

 

The language and narration kept up with the pace of the storyline. Whoever the editor was, he/she really did a justice with the whole book. While every part of the book had something to contribute, what really stood out to me was the writing style and the narration. The character of ACP Agni Mitra was crafted in a very simplistic manner yet his witty mind could crack the toughest of cases. I loved how the author didn’t try to show him off as someone superior who outshines the other characters.

The cover designer really did his/her work. Just look how it complements the story so well!

Oh I forgot to mention that there were no grammatical glitches nor were there any punctuation errors, except for one, but that can be neglected. Also, I jotted down the new words which I got to know! 😛

Now you might be thinking where did my complaining part go :p. It’s right here!

I don’t have any serious complains for the book since I really enjoyed reading it. There were only two parts which rubbed along the wrong side and irked me a little bit.

In the inquisition scene when Agni was interrogating the assailants, I felt that scene particularly needed to be more powerful and should have been given more stress because Agni in this scene was shown to be super relaxed, never losing his composure; only his stare was written off as intimidating where as his presence should have been shown to be intimidating, which was not. It felt as if they were conversing at a reunion party. Would I have reacted the same way, if it had been me interrogating those rapists? Nope, not at all.

I would have loved if the epilogue ended in a more realistic way rather than ending on a sketchy note.

But nonetheless, there’s no denying that this book is a complete package.

MY FINAL VERDICT —

This book definitely has that “wow factor” which I have been looking for lately

This is one of those books where you wouldn’t be able to heave a sigh of relief until and unless you reach the end of the book and successfully unveil all the murder mysteries which would ultimately lead you to the culprit. The word weaving and the whole plot build-up was so riveting that I couldn’t keep my eyes off the page; a definite page turner with an equally compulsive storyline is what made this book a great read for me.

All the emotions – fear, hatred, love, passion, anger, indignation, envy and revenge were thoroughly exploited and were prominently brought out by the characters. Most of all, I could feel what they were feeling.

Also, the places mentioned in the book are familiar to me since, the plot is set up in my city. This familiarity is what fuelled my interest all the more.

WILL I RECOMMEND IT?

Trust me, I had enough reasons to like this book, you would too. There are some adult scenes but they are not at all graphic, also there’s this rape scene; so, if you are okay with little shudders here and there and you’re okay with a little bit of discomfort, you would be good to go. If you are looking to go on a thrilling ride and murder mysteries are your cup of tea, then I would advice you not to miss out on this book!

RATINGS —

Concept: 4/5

Plot: 4/5

Characters: 4/5

Narration: 4.5/5

Grammar and Punctuation: 4.5/5

Language and Vocabulary: 4.5/5

POESY IN CHRYSALIS RATING: 4.3 stars out of 5.

YOU CAN BUY THE BOOK FROM HERE.

Have you read this book? What are your thoughts on this? What did you think of my review? Comment your thoughts down below!!

Check out my last book review on Sachin Jha’s “I Killed Her”.

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Note: I received a copy of this book from Writersmelon in exchange for a honest review.