Sunday, September 30, 2012

The Mine by Arnab Ray




The author is one of the widely read blogger.  The Mine is his second book and first in fiction I guess. Anyway I like his tweets (@greatbong) and enjoy reading his blog posts. He has that subtle sense of humor where you can admire the sarcasm with a smile. 

Somewhere in the Rajasthan, some rich people started digging for something, and bumped into an old shrine with bizarre sculptures and sayings in old Hebrew language under them.  After that there were mysterious deaths happened in the mine and a highly paid team is formed to enquire into the matter. Our protagonist, an old spy of India is part of them. 

The head of the mine, after some incidents informs them that, they all have done fatal things in the past, so there  are here to suffer for their sins. The twist is, she has released a nervous gas, which might enhance their physical abilities but gives them a mental torture. And the route to get out of the mine is filled with sophisticated booby-traps.   

By the end of the novel, I was clutching the book hard and my eyes are moving like crazy over the lines. 

But there are too many loose ends. First of all, why a bunch of wealthy people want to dig up a hole in the earth , and inviting all the criminals who are never punished by the law , then kill them there.  Morgan Freemans movie seven , and aparichitudu came to my mind.
And author completely neglected the way the shrine which aroused in interest in the readers. He tried to strike a balance between thriller, a psychological thriller, a drama and a historic novel. But he settled on thriller for most of the part.
The Mine is gripping, a page turner and all that. But it didnt not made sense when I finished the novel and had a tea.  But considering the fact its just second book of the author and the book made me sit and read. I have hopes on this author. I think he is writing a new book now, I am going to pre-order it.

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