Second Lives by Anish Sarkar - Enjoy the ride of this fast paced thriller

There is a book by Jeffrey Archer called "As the Crow Flies". This book had a rather unique way of story telling. Most books have the author as the main story-teller in a third person narrative who takes you through the chapters as the plot unfolds. In this book, however Archer used a combination of the usual manner of story-telling plus having the characters of the story spell out their points of view as the plot unfolds. So you will have a chapter which is written in the usual way. This would be followed by a narrative by a character, say "Charlie Trumper" who then provides a view on how he looks at the world. This would be followed by the usual narrative of the story-teller or it would be another character and so on. 

Second Lives is quite unique in the sense that the entire plot unfolds through the eyes of the different characters. Every chapter is the point of view of one of the characters. And the fast paced plot unfolds through this novel writing technique. In addition, it switches between the past and present of each of the characters in a rather seamless way which is very important for such a fast paced whodunit plot. 

Anish manages to retain the interest all throughout and delivers a winner. This is quite different from his earlier book Benaami which had a more complex plot and which straddled across different centuries and had elements of rebirth, the 1857 Indian mutiny interspersed with life in the 21st century (including mis-use of nuclear technology). Second Lives is much more simpler and has a very intelligent plot which moves at a rather scorching pace and does throw a chill down your spine at frequent intervals. This book offers a staple plot for a Bollywood thriller though the screenplay would require a slightly different way of storytelling.


There are a couple of minor things that could have been fleshed out better. The experience of Roy post his revival from the river (Chapter 68) doesn't have a follow-through. Secondly the climax seems a little too hurried and predictable. Would have actually preferred something that left things quite hazy, thereby leading to potential sequel. However these are relatively minor and don't take away the sheen of the thriller

At INR 49 (for the Kindle version), this book is a steal and is perfect for the bibliophile who likes to get tucked away in a nice thriller plot for the weekend.