Looking at the cover (Syringe and a bullet) and the word
"RIP" (which in normal parlance is "Rest in peace") you
tend to think that there is going to be someone who's going to be killed and
rested in peace.
It turns out to be true in one sense that it is about the
Resurgent Indian Patriots, who put to rest the endless scams and scandals that
seem to rock the entire nation.
The novel is fast paced and it starts bang on with action as
a few ex-military members join hands (The K-Team_) to literally "Kill"
corruption in the country. As the K-team
gets a heads up in their mission, they send in their demands anonymously (calling
themselves as Resurgent Indian Patriots) which is aimed at getting a corruption
free government.
The K- team threatens to kill some possible targets within a
short span of time, if their demands are not met. To figure out RIP and get the
nation back to normalcy, the home minister gets into action. He issues orders
to get hold of RIP through two routes viz a viz the CBI route and he also
establishes a rogue force to get rid of the RIP in his own interests. The race
between K-team, the CBI and the rogue force form the rest of the story.
The way each of them proceeds with their goals unfolds interestingly
and one of them finally evolves as the winner of this race.
There is also a subtle romance track that runs along the
"bloody" story line. The author ensures that romance track doesn’t
take away the reader's attention from the main theme. In unfolding the story
line, the author brings about his military background very lucidly. This turns
out to be the USP of the author.
(The author is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy
and the Indian Military academy. He has served the army for fifteen years-
including a decade of combat operations in India and abroad)
This novel is a riveting read and a page turner if you do
the reading akin watching a masala bollywood movie or reading a Robin Hood
story. (But if you get into discussion as to whether RIP is morally right or
wrong, then you may get different answers.)
One thing that is a bit filmy about the novel is that the
RIP team gets lucky and successful most of the time , whereas the rivals
including the cops are shown as less luckier and " lesser intelligent". Leaving that
as the creative right of the author, there is one more thing that irked
me. Throughout the read, I didn’t feel that
I was reading a work of fiction as there is an uncanny resemblance of the real
life characters to the characters in the novel. (The author apart from
providing a "Disclaimer" also begins the author note stating that the
book is a complete work of fiction- But still this feeling got over me multiple
times during the read)
Overall a good read. Since this is the first novel of the
author for me, it creates an interest to look into his previous books.
