Until I Find You-Kanchana Banerjee

Book: Until I Find You
Author: Kanchana Banerjee
Publisher: Om Books International

I was provided a media copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

What if your past catches up with your present?

When Jenny sees the picture of a boy in a travel magazine, she is stunned. He is a dead ringer for her friend Rubina. But the boy is supposed to be dead. Ten years ago, Jenny had failed to save Rubina and the infant from the clutches of the charming leader of a dangerous cult who led his flock to a mass suicide. Jenny’s journey to find the boy leads her to a sleepy village in Rajasthan, where she comes across Virat, a police officer investigating the discovery of a decomposed leg from a construction site. Are the two cases linked? As her past threatens to catch up with her, Virat and Jenny get involved in a cat-and mouse game that leads to a diabolical climax. Taking off from the notorious Peoples Temple mass suicide-murder led by the charismatic Jim Jones, and told from multiple points of view, Until I Find You is a grim and brutal thriller where the arid landscape of Rajasthan is as much a character as the shadowy dramatis personae.

Until I Find You has an interesting premise that draws itself from real events. Kanchana has painted an interesting picture of what happens when a person inspires a cult to commit mass suicide. The storytelling is quite imaginative, and having being set in a village in Rajasthan, the local dialects, food and the landscape play a crucial role in her storytelling. The plot moves quite fast and as a reader, you get engrossed in it till the very last page. The book starts with two very different threads, and you keep looking for a manner when they will cross each other and the real story would begin. There are elements of mystery that keep you guessing about the motives of each of the characters as you go along. The idea of two people looking for someone who could be connected has been explored in quite some detail. Another aspect that I liked about the story was that there are hints being thrown all around, which start making sense once you read the climax. While the overall feel of the story is gripping, I felt that the book became a bit of a drag in the middle, and preferably a bit of police procedural could have added that bit of taste into the plot. The big reveal in the climax, however, was quite unexpected and in hindsight made that character seem important.

Coming to the characters, I must commend Kanchana for creating a shortish cop named Virat. The jokes, puns and the sarcasm added to the intrigue of the plot, and adding a bit of the human touch in the story. Virat as a policeman was quite effective in the story, specially towards the end. I loved how he is shown as a normal cop, one you can see and relate, rather than a supercop. Another interesting character in the story is that of Jenny, and the layers that come off one by one as you keep reading. I loved the way her perseverance has been shown, specially after facing what she faced.

Overall, if you are looking for a thriller with a twist, then Until I Find You is a definite recommendation. The book scores a 4.44/5 for me.

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