Title: Jacob
Hills
Author: Ismita
Tandon Dhankher
About the
story: When Major George Chandy and his wife Eva arrive at the War College
stationed in Jacob Hills, neither of them have any inclination of what awaits
them in the idyllic and beautiful town. George, after suffering a leg injury in
a war mishap, is posted as an instructor to teach the Young Officers. Along with
his new bride, the Anglo-Indian Eva, he starts his life afresh in Jacob Hills. But
the peaceful town has an ugly underbelly too where murders, child abuse, wife
swapping and domestic violence forms the norm of the army society.
When Eva
discovers the dying body of a young woman, she is horrified and takes it upon
herself to expose the murderer and bring justice to the dead woman who had also
suffered domestic abuse when living.
To keep herself
busy, Eva starts teaching at a local school and it’s there that she comes
across a girl who shows similar signs of abuse as the dead woman. Eva tries her
best to get the little girl talking, knowing very well that she’s the only one
who has seen the face of the abuser, but the poor girl is traumatized by the
entire episode and withdraws at any kinds of intimacy.
Apart from
Eva and George there are many other couples whose story is narrated alongside- Pam
and Gary who covertly run The Key Club, an underground swinger’s club, Major.
Vikram and his wife Saryu who is forced to sleep with other senior officers to
forward her husband’s career, Capt. Rana and his Muslim wife Heena who are
bound by matrimony due to an unforeseen pregnancy.
With so
much mayhem and unrest will Eva be able to bring justice to the dead woman,
will she be able to stop the child abuse that’s happening right under everyone’s
nose, will she be able to break the tacit but conventional molds set for an
army wife? Read the thriller/suspense novel to find out :-)
My Review:
The book set in the 80’s definitely lays bare the ugly underbelly of army life.
Though CA and domestic violence is still unheard of, there are rumors of wife
swapping rendezvous in and around army circles.
In my book
review of “Love on the Rocks”, Ismita Tandon’s previous book (which you can
read here),
my grouse was that the main protagonists didn’t have enough passion between
them for the reader to empathize with the characters. Well, I should say that it
has been aptly taken care of in this novel because the sizzling chemistry
between George and Eva is sure to set pulses racing.
The cons?
Well, I guess the suspense/thriller element is slightly underplayed in the book
what with other issues that supposedly plagues the army society life also portrayed
in the book.
The author
has adopted the same way of narration (each chapter is narrated by different
characters) as in her previous book but thankfully she has kept the chapters
short and crisp which undeniably deserves a thumbs up from me.
Verdict: An
interesting read with varied characters and interesting plot. Read it if you don’t
mind your suspense/mystery books sidetracked with multihued diverse plot elements.
Rating: 3.5/5
This book was sent to me by Indiblogger, Get Published-Book Reviews.
I met Ismita during Pune Bloggers meet but haven't read her book yet. Will read after reading this review. Thanks for this :)
ReplyDeleteLooks like an interesting read with lots of subplots and twists in the tale...
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