- Author: Deeba Salim Irfan
- Paperback: 239 pages
- Publisher: LiFi Publications Pvt. Ltd. (2020)
- Language: English
BLURB as on Goodreads
A Murder. An Accused. Three Lives. What is the truth? 355 Days in the life of a British-Indian business tycoon, Aadesh Dixit; his wife, Maya, and his lawyer, Nasha Singh.
How will 355 Days impact their lives?
Crime thrillers are my absolute favorites. The adrenaline rush and intrigue they give me is indescribable. I love the chase to find the missing pieces of a puzzle. It is just so satisfying.
355 Days by Deeba Salim Irfan is a crime thriller that exposes the murky judicial system of India including the terrible life in an Indian jail. The book also touches upon a man’s transcendence from a greedy man to that of going up on the path of spiritual life. It thereby establishes a link between how tough times help us to grow and refine ourselves.
Told from a third person’s voice, the book essentially revolves around a murder case that puts our protagonist Aadesh behind the bars. He receives a sickening treatment as he goes around passing his time amidst pent-up emotions of his fellow inmates. The book chronicles his 355 days in the jail, the transformation of his perspective, and him finding his twin-flame soul in Nasha.
I went into the book with zero expectations and biases. I was definitely interested in reading about what happens behind the bars. It was both amusing and heart-wrenching to see how a jail inmate is met with derogatory treatment. But more appalling was how the inmates behave with each other. That did open my eyes to the fact that how our surroundings shape us; negativity begets cynical and antipathetic behavior.
The author has done a good job of writing this book. The smooth language and lucid narrative made it pretty easy for me to finish it quickly. The author included local terms wherever needed thus building the atmosphere in the right proportion. What I found amiss was the narration that somewhere lacked the right pace. I found Aadesh getting into the mess hasty. There was a lesser background story to what transpired him to land up in jail. Then, the climax ended up slightly disappointing me. Again, it was a bit unexpected and illogical. In a nutshell, the story didn’t perform exactly to the standard of a crime thriller. It more or less spread far and wide in its themes. Now, this was good to bring variety to the reading experience but it also didn’t do justice to the focus of the book completely.
Keeping the loopholes apart, the book turned out to be fairly decent. A refined narration would have made it better. Recommended to beginner to moderate level readers.
Have you read this book? Or, any favorite crime thriller that you would recommend?
MY RATING: 3/ 5
Buy your copy: 355 Days
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