The Kamin’s Daughter-Nithya Sashi

Book: The Kamin’s Daughter
Author: Nithya Sashi
Publisher: Vishwakarma Publications

I was provided a Media Copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

What would you do if your past comes calling?

Two seemingly unrelated deadly incidents. A deadly methane blast kills several workers in the Chirimiri coal mines. A suicide bomber attacks the Delhi CM's house and blows it up. Both cases land on Koena's lap, a journalist at the TNN network. Sharp as a whip, clever, and with an eye on the top job at her network, Koena decides to get to the bottom of both the cases. Married to a celebrity chef, Shom, Koena has the world at her feet. Along with her colleague, Sagar, she hurries to unravel the truth behind the two cases. Will Koena find answers before it is too late?

The Kamin’s Daughter explores a good concept that tries to explore multiple topics such as media sensationalism, the Naxal Movement and the identity of individual people. Nithya uses the plot to explore the fact that there are different shades to people, and sometimes, even if you have spent years with them, there might be a facet to their personality completely unknown to you. This has been the theme that runs throughout the book, and is what holds the reader. What worked for me in the book was the idea to use timelines to explain events happening so as to keep the reader on track, however it could not be executed completely because there are moments where the timelines do not match with the events taking place and as a reader you are forced to go back to the previous chapter to understand the turn of events. Another aspect of the story that didn’t work for me was the long-drawn tale of Koena, Sagar and Tim. While some part of it was important to set the context, almost half the book is spent exploring Koena’s office and Sagar’s antics without contributing much to the plot. The second half of the book does pick up some pace, and the events in the book start making sense to the reader. The climax is emotional, but feels rushed as too many things start happening which seem rushed and undercooked.

Coming to the characters in the book, Koena’s character has been written in quite some detail and I liked how shades of her are shown in the book. Sagar is another character who adds a good flavor to the story, and I would have loved to see a bit more of him in the plot. Shom’s character is another one who is a crucial one, but doesn’t get his due in the story.

Overall, a good plot which could have delivered with another round of editing and proofreading. The book scores a 3.25/5 for me.

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