I have been thinking of writing
this review for quite some time now but somehow never got the time… Ahh the time…
seems like the most valuable thing now… In the rat race of life I am losing out
on time. I wish sometimes the clock should just stop.
Am I talking non-sense?? May be…
let’s get into the The Price you Pay. As you all know given a choice I will most
likely pick up a thriller book and that’s exactly what I did when I got an
offer from Indiblogger & Harper Collins on a book review program. And since
I could choose only one book I chose to go with this thriller by Somnath
Batabyal. The snippets looked quite promising – so let’s see finally how it is.
The Story
Fresh out of college Abhishek Dutta joins Express as a
trainee reporter in crime beat in Delhi. Luck strikes quite early for him when
he is able to uncover few scoops and gain the attention of his immediate boss Amir Akhtar, the big shot in Journalism
world, and his competitors.
Abhishek manages to make some allies in the Delhi Police department
and he gets his hand on some of the breaking news. The rookie journalist
overhears a conversation between Uday
Kumar the supercop DCP Delhi Police and his subordinate Mayank Kumar on an eminent return of the
dreaded gangster Babloo Shanker.
Various twists and turns bring Abhishek in limelight and is offered a
job of investigative journalist in the leading English news television channel.
At a time when Delhi Police Department is going haywire in locating the dreaded
gangster and bust his plans, Babloo
Shanker contacts Abhishek and
makes him his sole communication point to the world media.
What happens to the kidnapping
plan? What happens to Abhishek in these
murky worlds of crime? Does he pay a price for all the attention he garnered? You
gotta read the book to unravel the answers.
My thoughts
I found the characters extremely
well thought through. The emotions and anxiousness of a newbie in the
journalism world is expressed well. Uday
Kumar the DCP has shades of gray and that comes out nice.
Narration wise it is okay, racy
at times but dips and places as well.
Having interned as a journalist
(surprisingly at Indian Express only!) I could feel the emotions of Abhishek on his first day, or times when
he is on his own to get a story. The book almost took me back to those times
when I was interning and getting accustomed to the grinds of the journalism
world.
Being a journalist himself Somnath Batabyal obviously didn’t keep
short of jargons and incidents from current situations in the country. Be it
the black money or the commonwealth scam. And it is always good to find these
told through humor – if you can read between the lines.
The Author
Somnath Batabyal has been a journalist for over a
decade and specializes in crime reporting - that explains the theme and plot of
the story. This is his first attempt at writing fiction and he does a good job.
To read more about him you can visit his website which also has a list of his other
non-fiction works.
My Rating – 3.75/5
(I have rated it a little more in Good Reads – that’s because Good Reads doesn't allow me to rate in decimals)
Book – The Price
you Pay
Author – Somnath Batabyal
Genre – Fiction Thriller
Publisher – Harper Collins
Published in – 2013
ISBN 13 – 9789350294253
ISBN 10 – 9350294257
Format - Paperback
Pages – 296
Price – INR 350
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I got a free copy of this book thanks to Indiblogger and Harper Collins.
This review is written for Indiblogger.
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