The Shrine of Death by Divya Kumar

A debut novel. An interesting plot. Came out very well, Divya! First, hats off for your efforts. Before I start the review, I wanted to tell you something. I had the opportunity of visiting few Chozhaa (Chola) build temples in and around Kumbakonam, at the same time I was reading this book. A lucky coincidence that made the reading interesting, and the visits to these temples even more interesting. So, what a coincidence!

As like my previous reviews on any thriller related novels, I won't go into the story as even a bit can spoil the reading for whoever picks the book in their hand. So, I won't do that mistake. The book has everything a typical thriller will have and more - friendship, deceit, suspicion etc., The one that makes this one stand tall is the idol theft which has become very common these days, especially in Tamilnadu where people are finding the idols belonging to the temples of Tamilnadu in remote parts of the world like Europe, Australia and America. The choice of characters and their profession goes really well with the plot. Today, greed is the reason for most of the crimes and that has been covered here as well. There are few places where the story looks dragging, but that does not stop you from your reading.

And, like in many Tollywood and Kollywood movies, love sparkles between two people coming together for a purpose, even when the plot is a thriller and that's here in this novel also. And, as you are progressing, it is not very difficult to guess the culprit. In my humble opinion, a thriller novel can make the reader guess the culprit, but it should introduce enough confusions throughout to change those guesses throughout the novel. The character names could have been chosen better to align with their descriptions/background. The language could have been polished a little bit to make it more professional. I hope things like these will be taken care of next time.

The twists and turns, the surprises, the India-based plot all are very impressive. Especially, I really appreciate choosing the IT professional character involving in such a thriller - something not everyone can think of. All in all, a very good debut novel from Prabha, sorry, Divya. Prabha resides in your mind even after you finish the novel and I am always confusing the author with Prabha. :-). Buy it and read. The novel won't disappoint you!