Papa -Jiganshu Sharma

Book: Papa
Author: Jiganshu Sharma
Publisher: Bluerose Publications

What is your favorite murder mystery?

Papa by Jiganshu Sharma is the story of the Mehra family of Delhi who faced a double whammy in the short span of a few months. The murder of Ishita Mehra shocker her family and the people who knew them. Shortly after losing their father to a car crash, the family was in distress as the mother, Kanta had gone into depression, and they had a younger girl who was deaf and had ADHD. The eldest son Pawan was pursuing his MBA and offered to leave his course and help his family, but his brother Ritesh stopped him and shouldered the responsibility of the family. Rajveer Singhmar, a newly recruited cop gets assigned to the case who gets quite involved in it. Can he identify the killer and bring justice to the family?

The plot of the story has been drafted well but the execution of the same could have been better. The murder mystery, which is supposed to be the main plot gets sidelined in all the emotional description that the author introduced in the story. The idea of a middle-class family, wrought with challenges, facing unprecedented hurdles was an interesting setting, coupled with parallel storylines that could have added volumes to the story. with Rajveer’s personal story overshadowing the main plot, the idea of a murder mystery is lost. Another thing that irked me was the overload of information and the insistence of the author of explaining things too much. The book has multiple grammatical and spelling mistakes and needs a second round of editing to make it better. The climax was good but by that time, the interest of the reader in the story wanes away. At the same time, not all is bad in the story. It has its good moments when we see Rajveer interacting with his wife, or when we see his dedication to work.

Coming to the characters, Rajveer as a character was interesting and I loved how emotionally invested he was in his job. Jiganshu created a character that paid attention to detail and I loved the quirkiness that he had. Ritesh as a character was another one that fascinated me with his ability to sacrifice for his family. His dedication to his responsibilities was commendable. I would have loved to see some insight and role of the elder brother, Pawan as well, and it would have made an interesting addition to the plot. The description of Rajveer’s wife, however, was unnecessary and it took up a lot of space in the plot line.

Overall, a decent book that could have been better. It scores a 2.5/5 from me.

Grab a copy of the book here.