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Thursday, 28 May 2020

#Reunion by Suvika


#Reunion by Suvika is a murder mystery involving serial murder on the rampage, targeting participants of a college reunion. Our protagonist Reyansh, the wolf, ultimate fixer guy of Corporate World, is the prime suspect and linked somehow with Murders. The story is about how Maya Bansal, SP, and Reyansh's love interest tackles this even when people are getting killed one by one.



Although you get the hint, about the identity of the killer few pages before the actual reveal in the book, the confirmation and motive behind the murders will surely shock many readers, especially in India.

Suspense thrillers with romantic love interests are Suvika's specialty, I have read all her books with my favorite being A Man to die for. Although certain times accused of plagiarism, the way Suvika Indianizes the story gives depth to her characters, shows them struggling with their demons, and experiences are her USP as a writer. No over the top romance or drama, just right amount of spark that keeps readers interested in leads, without overshadowing actual plot. She sketches the characters which we can always relate to even though we may not know such people in real life. Even the professions she gave to her leads in this one is highly central to story. Maya is a cop whose love interest is the prime suspect of serial murders. We can feel her struggle trying to be objective about the investigation and on realizing his innocence, fighting hard to find the real murderer. Reyansh is the ultimate fixer of the corporate world who works in shadows and fixes things for corporates. For normal people, his job may look bit shady and may increase suspicions over him, but there is nothing shady or hidden about the persona of this guy. He moves on from ex-girlfriend without a grudge, helps find a job to a friend who is fired coz of him, is a loving protective brother who fails to recognize signs of any abnormality in his sister's behavior. He is a fixer who is unable to identify issues needed to be fixed in his personal life. He is supportive of Maya's exhaustive work, worried and protective about her without being all Macho about it, and most importantly is super confident about her skills. The subtle gender reversal is highly appreciable here. Maya is a cop, tough physically working with ease in a male-dominated world. Reyansh being a professionally analytical guy is never seeing being the one who solves things with punches but uses his brain in that. If there is a fight amongst friends he will try to reason with them, if there is an unwanted obsession by a friend he would shout at her and make her see sense if Maya takes risks and uses herself as bait, he cooperates with her, staying at sidelines, confident with her team.

There is also no drama about how they fell in love. When they propose they directly do and accept it. As a reader, I also didn't felt a need for unrequired flirting or romance in such an intense thriller. But still, you will feel the emotional attachment between both leads.

The only flaw I felt in the book was there was no closure in the epilogue. It is indirectly hinted that maybe things will go good for them, but as a reader who has felt about the emotional shock of protagonists, you will want more, something greater than these not so direct smoothening of things. Whether Reyansh has the strength to move on was also not clear. I wished there was more clarity with which book was ended.

Memorable Quotes-
None in particular

My verdict-
If you are looking for not so intense but good murder mystery with Indian set up go for it…

Availability-