Prisoner, Jailor, Prime Minister | Tabrik C. | Book Review

Prisoner Jailor Prime MinisterPLOT: 3.5/5
CHARACTERS: 3.5/5
WRITING STYLE: 3/5
CLIMAX: 3.5/5
ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 4/5

In the past few months, politics have become an important part of the news that we see every day.

Of course, there is always something politically related happening, but the present times are particularly loaded with big news.

Be it the crisis in Crimea, the protests in Venezuela, the problems in Thailand and Turkey, or closer home, the emergence of the Aam Aadmi Party as well as the battle for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

This is perhaps the best time for a political thriller to make an impression on its readers.

Tabrik C’s Prisoner, Jailor, Prime Minister is one such book that comes in at the right time.

It is a story about Siddhartha Tagore, who has been newly elected as the Prime Minister of India. The first order of the day is to try and find out more about the terrorist attack at the Pokhran facility and to try and stop it.

On a parallel, the story also gives background on how Siddhartha Tagore reached the highest echelons of Indian politics from pursuing Classical Music at Harvard.

How he becomes the leader of the opposition from there and then elected as the Prime Minister forms part of the story.

There are all the ingredients of a good political thriller that will keep you turning the pages at a fast pace.

The way the story moves in and out from the past to the present is smooth as well as the entire structure of the story is flowing. The narration has important twists and turns at exactly the right moments, and the characters are developed fairly well too.

I can only imagine the title is a nod to John le Carre’s “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”, but it sure has most of the elements that made up the famous author’s spy novels.

However, I felt there was a bit of an inconsistency when it came to the narration. When there were parts of the narration on which the author felt strongly about, there was a natural flow to the words.

But when it came to taking the story forward, the sentences were more abrupt. It felt like you were accelerating and decelerating in a car on a regular basis.

Maybe that was indeed the intention of the author, but for a thriller, the reader would want a consistent tempo so that the pace with which the story moves forward can be maintained.

On the whole, Prisoner, Jailor, Prime Minister was very good to read and is definitely a book you would want to complete in one sitting. It is very entertaining and at the same time enlightening, especially since the author has a strong interest in politics.

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