Author: Kishwar Desai
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Pages: 264
Price: Rs 350
Genre: Fiction / Thriller /Crime / Women issues
Rating: 6/10
Format: Paperback
Simran Singh is desperate for a break and some time away from her busy job as a social worker-come-crime investigator. And so the unspoilt idyll of Goa seems just the place - white beaches, blue seas and no crime.
But when a disturbing video appears on her phone, featuring a young girl being attacked by a group of men, she realises that a darkness festers at the heart of this supposed paradise. And when she discovers out that the girl is Liza Kay, a British teenager who has gone missing, she knows she must act in order to save her.
But first Simran must break through the web of lies and dark connections that flourish on these beaches. Everyone, it seems, knows what has happened to the girl but no one is prepared to say. And when more videos appear, and Simran herself is targeted in order to keep her quiet, the paradise soon becomes a living nightmare.
‘The
Sea of Innocence’ is the third book in the trilogy by Kishwar Desai. The first
one was ‘Witness
the Night’ and the second one was ‘Origins
of Love’. The only connections between the three are the main protagonist
Simran Singh, and the fact that each one of them deal with a women-centric
issue. ‘Witness
the Night’ was about female infanticide while ‘Origins
of Love’ was about Surrogacy and IVF.
About
the Book (from the blurb):
Goa, south India. A beautiful holiday hideaway where hippies and
backpackers while away the hours. But beneath the clear blue skies lies a dirty
secret…
Simran Singh is desperate for a break and some time away from her busy job as a social worker-come-crime investigator. And so the unspoilt idyll of Goa seems just the place - white beaches, blue seas and no crime.
But when a disturbing video appears on her phone, featuring a young girl being attacked by a group of men, she realises that a darkness festers at the heart of this supposed paradise. And when she discovers out that the girl is Liza Kay, a British teenager who has gone missing, she knows she must act in order to save her.
But first Simran must break through the web of lies and dark connections that flourish on these beaches. Everyone, it seems, knows what has happened to the girl but no one is prepared to say. And when more videos appear, and Simran herself is targeted in order to keep her quiet, the paradise soon becomes a living nightmare.
My
thoughts:
Kishwar
Desai does not beat around the bush. Her first few lines are always the
attention-grabbers. She comes straight to the point (or the case).
The
main protagonist in the series, Simran Singh, is a 46-year old social worker
(who really ends up being a detective for the cases she gets embroiled in). Simran
Singh is long past conventional marriageable age, loves her smoke and
destresses with alcohol. She is headstrong but gullible at times; though her
heart is in the right place. She has a penchant for courting risks by meddling
into cases related to vulnerable women, which usually also runs her into
powerful politicians and inefficient police. Her family consists of her mother
and an adopted teenage daughter, Durga (who was part of ‘Witness
the Night’).
Quite
evidently, the book has taken liberally from the much-publicised Scarlett
Keeling case. You may read about the case here. Since it was
dealing with sexual crime against women, the book also gives a lot of
references of the recent Delhi gang-rape case and other such reported cases,
which sometimes puts the narrative off-track. But clearly, author’s motive was
to highlight the injustice meted out to women like Scarlett Keeling who have
been victims of sexual violence and who are now lost into oblivion with several
perpetrators yet to be brought to books.
Honestly
speaking, the author had much to consider in putting all the strings together
for this book. Having the protagonist on the crime scene; involving her in
situations in which Scarlett was found dead; also incorporating the recent,
much publicized Delhi rape case and other sexual violence reports; Simran’s
pursuit of the case; inserting a romantic angle; and moreover, the setting of
Goa had its own baggage like issues of locals against tourists, problems due to
modernization, night life, surge in crime, the drugs mafia, et al. I felt there
were a few unnecessary, cringe-worthy sequences about the sexual violence.
What I
admire about the author is her ability to highlight a social, women-centric
issue and weave a fascinating, fast-paced thriller around it. Perhaps it is her
years of experience in journalism that helps her accomplish that. In
retrospect, since I had read her previous 2 books, perhaps I had unrealistic
expectations from the third one. But if you like this one, trust me, you will
love the other ones more.
This
book is not a masterpiece but like all Kishwar Desai’s books, it is a
compelling read, woven around topical women-centric issues, and like always, it
too strikes a note. As Smita also mentioned, the only issue with all of the
author’s three books is that their endings do little justice to the fast-paced
narratives. But having said that I feel this book will work for the readers who
like thrillers or crime-based fiction.
Review Book courtesy: Simon & Schuster India
Image source: Amazon
Review Book courtesy: Simon & Schuster India
Image source: Amazon
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