Saturday 6 October 2012

My Take on The Krishna Key

I have always been an avid reader. I remember keeping novels inside text books and reading them right before exams :P I have always loved murder mysteries as well as sappiness. If a book strikes a chord with me, I have got to finish it, like ASAP!

When Ashwin Sanghi's The Krishna Key was up for review on blogadda.com, I HAD to, like HAD to sign up for it. Mythology has always intrigued me. Add in murder and you have yourself a winner!

Though I haven't read any of Ashwin's works before, (namely Rozabal Line and Chanakya's Chant), the positive reviews about his works did fill in some expectation in me. Did the book meet up to the expectations? Read on to know more :)



The Krishna Key is a smart blend of History, Crime and Mythology. The author makes parallel use of the Mahabharata and the present day world. Each excerpt from it has been used as either a precedence or a conclusion for every present day event in the plot.

The plot involves historians, a professor who gets entangled in a crime that he hasn't committed, his doctorate student and many such eminent personalities with complex characters. The villain also exhibits a multitude of features. The series of murders, the twist in the tales and the mythology running side by side made sure that I was glued to the book all night.



A lot of hard work has gone into the book, and it is very very obvious. Kudos to the author to have researched such a vast amount of information and having sewn it into the book. The Indian in you wakes up wide at so many wonderful things that have been apparently achieved by our ancestors. The so many references to the ancient science and technology, the land reclamations  the wonderful architectural dimensions reached and the infinite knowledge possessed by our sages and literary figures. It makes you wonder how finite and pint sized knowledge we all possess.
There is a lot of reference to archaeological elements and  items of historical value. The explanation is so explicit, you will WANT to know what is the Krishna Key :)

The only drawback I found in the storytelling was as the story proceeds, its becomes pretty predictable at some places. Sometimes, expecting the unexpected might end up bringing out the expected! This makes it pretty boring here and there, and I was tempted to skip pages but hey! You can't really do that, the story has sudden twists at the most boring level. You can't really predict the exact flow of the plotting and will be dumbfounded here and there ;)

The characters do justice and display a sense of strength in them. There is a genius of knowledge and plotting in them and they come across as individuals with a weird aura of strangeness around them.

The book does complete justice to the genre - mysterious, gory murders, state of art technology, and plenty of information. The verses from Mahabharata, translated to English, add in a beautiful vedic touch to the story. There are also illustrious maps, diagrams and sketches to aid better understanding.

There was one typo - misplaced names. It did confuse me and I had to reread the paragraph to again for a correct understanding.
The cover page is wonderful too, adds in a sense of mystery and enigma and pushes you to think further.



All in all, its a wonderful book and a must read if you are interested in this specific genre. Except for the little parts of boredom, its a winner in my opinion.

PS: This review is a part of blogadda.com's Book Reviews.


1 comment:

  1. Very lovely review :) what's an interesting name for the book!

    ReplyDelete

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