Title: The Krishna Key Author: Ashwin Sanghi
Publisher: Tranquebar Press Publication date: August 2012
Category: Fiction Pages: 464
Price: INR 250/- ISBN: 9789381626689
About The Author:
Ashwin Sanghi (born January 25, 1969) is an Indian author. He has written several books on thriller fiction based on historical, theological and mythological themes. He is one of the Indian conspiracy fiction and is part of a broader trend of retelling Indian history or mythology in a contemporary context.
How I caught hold of this book?
It was through the Book review program by Blogadda.com. I applied for it and I got it.
First Appearance:
As per Blogadda.com, we had to put up the review of the book in 7 days. The first look at the book and I was worried if I could finish reading it and them also write a review. Albeit, I was excited the 464 page book and an additional 10 pages for the references section left me worried. ‘The Krishna Key’ is engraved in golden color and the background we can see a magnificent door locked.
As I read the first few lines of the book, it made me aware of the magnitude of research behind this book. Though the disclaimer that it is fiction and does not resemble any true incident, there a quite a few which I validated on google and found out to be facts. Ashwin narrates two stories in parallel. One is being narrated by Lord Krishna himself and the other is the present day fight for the key. Within no time a list of characters are introduced starting from Anil Varshney, Ravi Mohan Saini, Priya, Taarak Vakil, Cheddi to mention a few. You will need some time to remember these characters and their motives, backgrounds, history of the character. The novel is racy and number of events happen in a jiffy.
The author could probably have taken some more time to establish the characters. Here a sudden pool of characters is introduced. At times it become difficult to track whose history is being told. This is probably one drawback which I felt, but then the suspense that begins right from the 3rd or 4th page is maintained till the end. Maybe at times you will also feel this is being dragged, but the suspense never disappears. As we navigate towards the mid-part of the book, it becomes very evident that the author has done a lot of research and meticulously planned the writing. Mr.Ashwin Sanghi, Kudos to you and thank you for digging in such historical (mind the use of history and not mythology) pieces of India, rather the world and putting it in the most appealing way. Albeit, this is under the fiction genre there are a lot of facts which are part of the book and that is why there is a 10 page section for references.
One of the things that a left a mark on me as a reader was the last line in the Author’s Note which says that this piece of work is just being transferred from the person who is getting this written to the people through the author. This statement in itself shows the culture of the author, it can also be the alchemy (process of transformation to a superior being) that has happened within the author during the process of writing this book. This book has not only thrown light on some important historical events for me, but it also has maintained the thrilling suspense till the end. I will definitely go for The Rozabal Line and The Chanakya Chant from Mr.Ashwin Sanghi.
P.S: This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books!
I would rate this book 3/5. For anybody who has loved Dan Brown’s works, go ahead and read it. This is the desi version.
You can buy this book at Flipkart.