Book Review of "The Tenth Riddle"

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 Name: The Tenth Riddle        Author: Sapan Saxena

Publisher: ‎ Locksley Hall Publishing LLP

Genre: Suspense/Thriller/

Format: Paper Back Format

Price: 350INR

Buy from Here: The 10th Riddle

Avni, the Princess of Goner, Rajasthan is found dead few hours before her coronation ceremony. Shoumik; Deputy Director of IB, Shakti Sinha, a local Politician and Ishan a bestselling author attempts to solve her murder but wait; she was murdered 6 years ago! Very well knowing that the traces to her death would be very tough to locate, the trio, in an attempt to solve the prophecy made up of ten riddles intertwined with the murder of Avni, embarks on the journey to Goner, a town with high infant mortality rate, a town where girl infants die due to dis-figuration, a town of Kuldevi, Shakti, who blesses parents with male babies……

Once you have crossed the threshold of 11th page, there is no going back, the more you read, the more you want to know, the plot of the story is so well written. The book has so many detailed information that I found really fascinating like the tales of various Devi’s, importance of their iconography and how every chapter started with the name of a Devi and what she stands for. The book not only revolves around solving a murder mystery but also on solving a historical riddle holding a secret which have been impacting the lives of so many people. Apart from the Mythological point of view the author also focuses on topics like sex ratio. The overall theme of the book revolves around female power and strength. The Cover of the book is spot on and does overall justice to the plot of the book. The language is quite lucid. The characters are very well framed and developed. I really loved how the secret was tied with historical data. The secret revealed at the end was quite impressive.

I wish the author would give blueprint of the temple better understanding of the locations of the rooms, I feel if some pictures of various artifacts and mural would have been included that would take experience of reading this book to another level. I had to google picture of every Devi for better understanding of what’s going on in the story, a picture would have been handy and there are many pictures of a same Devi available in different forms available online. I felt that the initial part i.e., the first chapter is kind of a loose end as there is not much of the story related to it available later. The book could have used a bit of editing and proof reading here and there.

Conclusion: People who love reading mythology and thriller, suspense should definitely go for this book. Recommended from my end. I would rate the book as 4/5.

About the Author: Sapan Saxena is an engineer from MNNIR Allahabad, he was born in Lucknow, however is currently based in Nashua, New Hampshire. Sapan started writing blogs in the year 2011 and his blog was covered by major national dailies on a couple of occasions. The Tenth Riddle  is Sapan’s 3rd book, his previous work includes Finders,keepers (released in 2015, Available here) and UNNS-The Captivation (Released in 2017, Available Here)

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