When you finish reading a book in one sitting, and especially when that sitting straddles an entire night, there is not much more you need to say about it. The Bestseller She Wrote is gripping for sure. A page-turner, especially in the second half!
The big risk that Ravi Subramanian took in switching genres from thriller to romance, has paid off. At least in the craft of the book, and in its engagement. Of course the author minimized risk by cleverly using techniques perfected with his banking thrillers. He has brought in an element of the tested genre’s raciness, intrigue and suspense into his romantic offering. The result is a bit of the best of both genres – a romantic thriller!
But that is not the crux of his experimentation. As a true votary of ‘books as products’ that need to be marketed and sold, Ravi’s intention in shifting genre was to attract the ever-increasing group of romance readers, who were perhaps not inclined to reading banking thrillers — in particular, women. Did he succeed in the attempt? “Yes, that has happened,” says the author. “Today I get a lot of mails from women readers who say this is the first Ravi Subramanian they have read.” And numbers tell their own story – This book has been his fastest sales yet in the first four months! Though of course a small number of his diehard thriller fans are disappointed.
The fact that the story is set in the contemporary world of books and is partly based on actual incidents makes it a must-read for readers of commercial fiction. The author’s well-advertised jibes at some fellow authors in the course of the book stoke curiosity. What worked for me are the real life characters and situations. The questions that the story throws up about glitzy success and its shenanigans, about morality, adultery, jealousy, anger, bitterness, repentance, revenge, forgiveness and redemption are all fascinatingly close to real life.
A handsome, bestselling author Aditya Kapoor with a beautiful, loving wife and a great career (banking, what else?) is distracted by the attentions of a typical go-getter Shreya Kaushik who uses him for her own ends. The author of course vehemently denies any autobiographical element in the plot, just accepting that some of Aditya’s habits and views about the publishing industry are his too.
Shreya has a single-minded focus – she wishes to use Aditya to reach the pinnacle of success. He, at the top of the ladder, makes Adam’s eternal mistake and bites the forbidden fruit. Here onwards complications ensue, and the story takes some surprising twists and turns, maintaining the pace and edge-of-seat suspense of a thriller — before matters are resolved at the end in a powerful catharsis.
The book leaves a trail of questions to which there are no answers. Each of us must reach our own conclusions. Who is to blame in an extra-marital affair – the committed man or the single girl who chases him unabashedly? Is it possible to love two people at the same time? Is it possible to forgive a straying spouse? Can a broken marriage possibly limp back to normal?
The success of the book is in the brisk pace, the twists and turns, and in its long tail — the open-ended discussions on relationships that it leaves trailing behind…