New Delhi: An Author’s Secret, written by Santosh Vishwanath and published by Nu Voice Press, is the story of Ankana, a carefree soul who supervises an electronic showroom by day and dabbles with writing romance novels by night that’s never taken off. Her world is shaken when her estranged brother, a famous mystery author, dies in an accident. Out of the blue, she gets a strange offer – Complete her brother’s unfinished mystery and fulfil her dream of reaching thousands of readers. Reluctantly agreeing to it, she embarks on a wonderful writing journey, only to unearth a secret from the novel relating to real life!
I did note that a male author tells us the story through a female protagonist’s first-person narration. Santosh took a risk here. In my experience, I was expecting him to overcompensate and perhaps dive into extreme emotions in the story to justify such a move. I was glad he kept it simple and relevant to the story and stayed away from unwarranted exaggerations.
With the simple language that today’s readers prefer (and I hope that invites more people to start reading), Santosh’s writing holds the readers’ attention with minor twists embedded into a couple of important ones. The best thing I found about this novel is a full-fledged mystery within a mystery. I’ve not seen this happen in recent times. I would have surely liked the ending extended by a chapter or so. Otherwise, it is a well-written, captivating mystery I could finish in one sitting. I highly recommend this double mystery.
