The Sacred Lake Murder: A Thriller By Snehal Rana | Book Review

We love thrillers. Especially the mysteries which – in Hercule Poirot‘s words – tickle our little grey cells!

It is definitely one of the favorite genres for a large number of readers.

During our journey of reading books, we came across a thought to share our genuine and unbiased thoughts about the books. The sole vision behind it was to help other like minded readers finding their next read. It turned out to be a regular disciplinary task for us which took its breaks over the period though.

Continuing our quest, today we are going to share with you our thoughts for a book named The Sacred Lake Murder by Snehal Rana.

The book found the commercial success and it became the starting point of “Navrangpur Murder Mysteries” – book series.

Book Cover:

As we have often mentioned we don’t judge a book by its cover. At the same time, we also acknowledge that it creates the first impression of the book and thus, can play a significant role in influencing a remarkable number of purchase and/or read decisions.

So, let us take a look at the cover page of this book.

As you can see, the cover page follow the minimalistic approach.

The black background represents the mystery, death and dark times. The the title, tagline and author name is written by dull golden yellow color and bold fonts. The illustration of the protagonist looks impressive. Especially his background where you see the crime scene (the lake and a temple).

A moderately good cover page.

Storyline:

Let us take a bird’s eye view of the book plot.

There is a small town named Navrangpur somewhere in Gujarat. It usually holds the calm and chaos, peace and discomfort, trust and betrayal, support and competition; walks hand in hand; like in any typical town. By an large, it is a fantastic place to live where the things happened in routine timetable like schedule. Most of the days are identically comfortable for the citizens.

Today, is however, quite a different day.

At the very early in the morning, a dead body was found on the surface of the lake situated at the border of the town. And, the dead body belong to a young, beautiful and intelligent girl named Dr. Nirali Zaveri. She is respected in her inner circle and was appreciated by the citizens for her helpful and genuine nature. She was the only child of Devang Zaveri, the wealthiest person and one of the most prominent figures of the town.

This incident shook the entire town, as most of the people knew each other, and even petty crimes are rare in the town. Murder is something really unexpected!

A lady teacher who love gardening and doing things with utmost discipline and punctuality, a hospital nurse, a police constable and a few other people suspected it to be a murder. The authorities, however, are keen to prove it a suicide. And, all the official reports and doctor’s opinions are catered to so.

Arjunsinh Rathore, a book shop owner, with a mysterious past is settled in the town since a few year. He has good observation and analytical skills and has heled police more than once to solve whatever problem they have encountered earlier.

In absence of the station in-charge, constable Mukesh Joshi asked for Arjunsinh’s opinion here. Eventually, Arjun is involve in the investigation.

Now, the town, or rather say prominent people of the town are almost divided into two segments. The authorities want this investigation to be stopped and closing the case as a suicide. A few people who suspected a foul play want a thorough investigation by Arjun, not trusting the authorities and their motives.

The common-folks of the town are curious to know the truth.

Will Arjun and his supporters be able to find the truth? Was it actually a murder or a suicide? You need to read thee book to get all your answers.

Over the course fo the story, you will meet with Arjunsinh Rathore, Miss Rosy D’Souza, Madhav Bhatt, Kalpana aunty, Nirmal Uncle, Dr. Nirali Zaveri, Devang Zaveri, Constable Mukesh Joshi, Sub- Inspector Patil, Dr. Rashida, Kantilal, Lata, Kalpana, Arjun Mehra, Dr. Rashida Khan, Priya Zaveri, Sarpanch Rameshbhai, Dr. Mahesh Sharma, Nurse Leela Patel, Kalima Zaveri, Chotu, and others…

Views and Reviews:

If you love reading thrillers and murder mysteries, then this book is definitely good choice.

At times you may feel that the things are dragged and pace getting slower. You will also find some descriptions are interesting yet lengthy.

It is the first attempt of the author to write a full-fledged book, but, a reader usually don’t care. Because, for him/her reading any book is a unique experience. So, we will not talk about this book from that perspective, but we can surely say that the author has good imagination, good literary skills and if edited more tightly, his book(s) (considering other books have the same quality) could prove to be bestsellers.

The way the town is introduced, is quite interesting. Let me quote a few lines from the book in the same regards.

The town of Navrangpur kept its secrets like a grandmother holds prayer beads— tightly, lovingly, and with absolute certainty of their sacred worth.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Navrangpur wore morning like a sari— layers of light and color wrapping gently around familiar curves.

Not only the town, but also its streets, various places like old church, hospital building, the book shop, the market, all are explored like living characters. I consider it a positive aspect of the book.

Lines like the following represents the behavior of the town quite interestingly.

The news traveled like wildfire through dry grass— crackling, hungry, impossible to contain.

Throughout the book, the protagonist and his nature are explored via interesting lines like the following:

“Tell him I’ll call back in four minutes.” “He seems quite desperate for help.” “The dead will remain dead whether I finish my tea or not.”
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Rathore parked at a distance, watching. First impressions were too valuable— and too easily contaminated— to risk.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
With methodical care, Rathore lifted the edge of the sheet. The face that greeted him was peaceful, almost eerily so.

And, the same is done for almost all the characters.

Kalpana turned to her husband, the chapati dough now compressing nervously between her fingers.

Giving them this kind of exposure makes the character more relatable.

And, generic observations are also included, like:

…the most dangerous killers are invariably those who understand that the perfect murder doesn’t look like murder at all.”
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
“Some people are born with moral compasses that point true north regardless of prevailing winds.

Also, the protagonist and his aide’s visit to a nearby isolation center (I will not tell much about it), reminded me of watching various English thrillers including James Bond movies; and reading books like Predator And Prey by Abhinav Agrawal.

The book has some interesting one-liners which are nothing less than life-lessons.

“Kindness costs nothing,”
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
“Information finds those who value it,”

And, it is obvious to expect lines elaborating various aspects in such books, like, habit of reading, observation, analysis and other stuff which are like “must be there”.

“And to observe who reacts most strongly to these suggestions. Sometimes resistance reveals more than cooperation.”
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
“Reaction creates visibility. Visibility creates accountability.”
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
“History offers practical advantages to those who bother learning it,”
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
“Patterns repeat, Mr. Rathore, though rarely in identical form. Understanding what happened before provides context for interpreting what happens now.”

The book also gets mention of Agatha Christie, popularly know as queen of crime (thrillers).

…but as he remembered her browsing the detective fiction section of his bookshop. Always Christie, he recalled. Usually something involving poison.

There are some lines which could have been written in better manner.

Medical charts lined one wall in neat rows.

The intention behind quoting various lines from the book is to give you the glimpse of actual writing, so you yourself can decide whether it is the kind of stuff you enjoy exploring. We don’t reveal the major part of the story in most of the book reviews to keep your reading experience intact. And, we are sure that while we didn’t reveal much, you must have got a fair idea about the book and the quality of writing. So, let us conclude here.

The epilogue hints you to an upcoming book in the series through the character of Kavya Sharma.

Summary:

It is a nicely written thriller which balances between human emotions, human psyche and thrilling incidents.

ThinkerViews Rating:

Around 7.5 stars out of 10.

Quick Purchase Links:

• Buy - The Sacred Lake Murder by Snehal Rana - Paperback - Amazon IN
• Buy - The Sacred Lake Murder by Snehal Rana - Kindle EBook - Amazon IN
• Buy - The Sacred Lake Murder by Snehal Rana - Paperback - Amazon US
• Buy - The Sacred Lake Murder by Snehal Rana - Kindle EBook - Amazon US

Over To You:

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