When the Snow Melts: A Review and a contest!

I recently happened to read a book called When the Snow Melts by Vinod Joseph. The book is Vinod’s debut novel and must say it was a very interesting, fast paced read.  What surprises me is the low key or almost zilch promotions for the book by the publishers- seriously wonder why. It is a good read, well priced yet not many would have heard of the book. Also have a major bone to pick about the book cover! Anyway that’s the publisher and author’s call, but I am glad I chose to read the book.

So what is the book about? It is a racy thriller about espionage, spies , where everything is deceptive and trust is rare. The protagonist Ritwik Kumar is the Indian representative in an International intelligence gathering group named International Assessment Group. This group has intelligence agents from all over the world who are trying to pool in their information networks to help fight global terrorism. Ritwik who is battling his alcohol addiction ends up borrowing a lot of money and when IAG head General West gets to know of this, asks him to pay up within 15 days or lose his job. Finding himself isolated and cornered he finally decides to defect. To get out of the mess he is in, he ends up getting into a much bigger mess by defecting to terror network of Al-Qaeda. He realizes he doesn’t fit there either and its ideology is something he can never agree to.

Is it going to be such an easy task to switch loyalities? Would the members of Al-Qaeda trust him enough to let them know of what is going on in their organization? Will Ritwik be able to get out of the self created trouble he is in? It gets messier still when he starts falling in love with Nilofer, wife of one of the members of the Al-Qaeda team. In a hostile place where he can trust not a single soul is he setting himself up for the worse….

All in all a good read, nice plot and page turner of a read. For those who like to read such genres should give reading this book a try. Believe me it is worth your money.

What’s more our blog also gives you a chance to win an autographed copy of his book by answering 2 very very simple questions. We have 5 copies to give away. But remember the contest closes on 8/12/12. The rules: You need to be an Indian Resident above 18 years of age, Judges decision is final…Now for the questions:

A)      Who was the founder of India’s Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW)?

B)      “Mossad” is Israel’s external intelligence agency. What’s the name of Israel’s internal intelligence agency?

So hurry and send us your answers to bookwelove(at)gmail(dot)com your time starts now!