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The Great Alone- Kristin Hannah

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The Vietnam War made a lot of people lose their families, land, homes and their identities. The ones who became prisoner of war, most of them lost themselves in the lands they went to fight for their country. The way the Vietnam war changed several men is depicted through the character of Ernt Allbright in this moving piece. Being a prisoner of war made him something that he could not even accept he was, a monster. The story starts with the small Lenora depicting her woes of listening to her cribbing parents all the time about how this place is also not working out for them and they have to move to another place all over again, start afresh. All she can think of how not to be the new kid in school all over again but nothing is in her hands. Allbright has days on which he is the best father ever and on others he could be quite scary. A thirteen year old is not able to comprehend the fear in her mother’s eyes but with the years rolling she understands what it depicts. One
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Lolita-Vladimir Nabokov

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Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin,my soul. These are the opening lines of the book. The first line itself held me perplexed, astonished and extremely inquisitive to complete this book as soon as I can. Fair Warning- this is not the usual kind of a novel that has an understandable and agreeable storyline. Lolita is a story about a professor of English named Humbert Humbert who is tremendously attracted to small girls aged between 9-12, basically a pedophile. The man, who as an exceptional academic record, tries everything to get over this feeling of his, by seeing therapists, making himself understand that this is illegal and immoral and even by getting married. But nothing in the world makes his heart sway as it does when he sees a little girl, and he forgets everything for a second. This psychological stance of his, is connected to his younger years when he was a young boy and got attracted to a girl  named Annabel. They had their intimate moments and he was head ov
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Whiskey Beach - Nora Roberts

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Suspected of his wife’s murder, Eli loses everything he had ever been or done. His life turns upside down as he loses his friends, livelihood, his identity and goes into a turmoil of grief. Claire had never been a good wife to him, and when he finds out that she has been cheating on him all along, he shatters into pieces and regrets his marriage to her. The day he gets to know about his conniving, deceiving and cheating wife, they both get into a big public fight. Eli goes to his house in the evening to get his family heirlooms back and as he steps out he watches in utter belief his wife cold on the ground in a pool of blood. The murder of Claire destroys whatever he had ever owned and makes him the biggest suspect in the murder. But, as his involvement could not be proved he is let off the radar but till then everything had come to an end. Trying to hold on to life, and fighting insomnia day in and day out. His life takes a turn when he has to go to Whiskey Beach because of a ter
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The Muse- Jessie Burton

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The Muse is a romantic drama revolving around a hidden tremendously talented artist, Olive Scholass. The story continuously shifts from the present day and almost three decades before. In 1967, Odelle, a migrator who came from the islands to London with her friend Cynth to find work aspired to become a writer. She was stuck in a shoe shop with minimum wage and a rotting ambition. One day, she received a job from an art museum, The Skeleton which changed her life forever. She meets a man at her friend’s wedding party who introduces her to his mother’s painting. The painting had such a striking presence to it that Odelle suggests him to get it to the Skelton. The year 1936, the Scholass family moves to the countryside of Spain. Harold Scholass, an art dealer is unaware that her daughter is one of the best artists one could ever see. Olive gets into the Slade School of Art but decides to not tell her parents. For some reason, she wants her talent to herself and the countryside sudde
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The Woman In Cabin 10-Ruth Ware

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How wary it is to believe in a person, seen her, talked to her but the next day the person ceases to exist. No one has ever seen her or can remember her around you. It feels maddening to the extreme and then, you witness a murder. A murder no one believes in of a person who does not exist. Something similar happens to journalist Lo Blacklock on a business sea trip. This trip was meant to be the turning point of her career but accidentally she borrows mascara from the girl next door, which turned to be the biggest mistake she could ever make. In the middle of the night, she wakes up to a noise of splashing water like a body has been thrown into the water. As she looks through her glass door, on the window on the other side she notices blood smeared all over the glass. Frightened out of her wits, she calls the security shouting ‘bloody murder’. But when the security personnel tells her that no one ever checked into the room adjacent to her, she is terrified and confused. She tells him
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Ordinary Grace- William Kent Krueger

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Some books leave an emotional print on you, irrespective of the storyline, the plot or the ending. This is one of those novels. Ordinary Grace by Meloche is narrated by Frank Drum, the second child to the Drum family. Set in the year 1961, the story is told forty years later by Frank about the fateful summer of that year, in which murder took a joyous ride around the town of Minnesota. A small boy at the edge of young adulthood is confronted with experiences that are far above his age and understanding. The death of a small boy named Bobby Cole, shook the Drum family as well as the whole society. A child’s life lost affected the whole of the community. Jake, Frank’s younger brother was affected the most. Ariel, their elder sister had suddenly started showing suspicious behaviour. She did not talk about her whereabouts and sneaked away at nights to places known to god. Frank noticed her once and thought that she must be going to see her boyfriend, well he wished later that were the tr
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The Dark Road - Mayur Didolkar

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The Indian Literary space is dominated by romance, finding yourself, relationships and coming of age sagas – the whole nine yards of sweet corn syrups and then some more. Most of them are dreary and boring. Mostly, they are not close to reality and pander to the narcissistic instinct of the social media generation. Then, once in a while, like the door creaks in the old mansion [pun intended]  comes along a riveting suspense drama, which has a different take on human emotions and while it is doing that, also keeps you on the edge of your seat. I am talking about the book named “The Dark Road” by Mayuresh Didolkar. Mayuresh is a Financial Manager at his Day job in Pune when he is not strutting his stuff and jolly good stuff it is! The Dark Road is in the mould of Roman Polanski’s – Chinatown, I kid you not. It is that good. It is essentially a murder mystery in the Whodoneit  genre , but it also a modern take on modern, dysfunctional relationships. Who are the characters in the book Dark
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