Fighting the good fight

Price: Rs 299

The Avenger by Juggi Bhasin takes up a year later after the events in The Terrorist,where Special Forces officer Suvir Suri faced his terrorist doppelganger,Murad,to a decidedly deadly climax. Now Suri has retreated to Himachal Pradesh to put a considerable distance between the world and his comatose lover and himself.

Meanwhile,in Delhi,a plane belonging to billionaire industrialist Suresh Jindal is hijacked while his daughter is on board and subsequently bombed,at the behest of the sociopathic Sikandar Khan,a Pakistani terrorist. Jindal prevails on Suri to avenge his daughter’s death as well as foil Khan’s machinations. The plot is a well-oiled,fast-paced machine,with Bhasin deftly providing backgrounds to his characters and situations without hindering the story arc.

The Avenger’s characters are real and relatable — whether it’s a sarkari babu’s mistress,an inebriated pilot or a terrorist using homosexuality as a weapon — without coming under any moralist fire. The portrayal of contemporary India as a country besieged by financial scams,separatist violence,TRP-hungry news channels and politicians with agendas,is fairly accurate,making the book an engaging read,despite some over-the-top accounts of global terrorism. There’s even an eerily au courant licentious episode between a senior and a cub reporter in an elevator.