Author: Sundip Gorai
Format: Paperback
Language: English
ISBN: 9788129117311
Pages: 289
Price: Rs. 195.00

‘The tale of techies‘
‘…codes‘
‘Hitler vanished‘
‘Hawa Mahal‘
‘Napoleon vanished‘ et al.
When these words adorn the cover of a book, giving you the faintest hope that it must be the ideal techie-cum-murder mystery story you were in search for, ‘Hickory Dickory Shock‘ by Sundip Gorai surely fulfills your nerdy needs. When I took the decision to take up the book, never did I know that this killer combination is going to be my fodder. And at the end of the day, the book did not disappoint me.

‘Hickory Dickory Shock‘ has major protagonists in the form of Maninder Tuten Chatterjee, Geetika. Other characters like the bosses from the firm Shivan Computers play important roles throughout the story. Tuten Chatterjee or 210, as he is popularly called, is one of the most intelligently-crafted character in a novel in recent times. Few flaws here and there kept apart, 210 is the guy every geek wants to be. He finds codes as yummy as the burger in company canteen, random restaurant prices make him go week in the knees and make him find some pattern in them. His famous thinking of Mexican Nachos to form Fibonachos by wordplay gives the evidence of the type of guy he is.

The storyline makes the character show his multidimensional talent as well. The story revolves around the stealing of ‘LoRD‘, an innovative software built by the engineers of Shivan Computers. Worse, two senior officials from the company was murdered on the very day ‘LoRD‘ was supposed to have a successful launch in front of a very large audience, all of whom were either techies or journalists. 210 turns out to be one of the suspects. Some weird things also start happening in the company this time, and 210 takes the responsibility on himself, with the help of his love interest Geeks or Geetika, to unearth the mystery behind all these happenings.

Writing: This book is indeed a fusion of multiple genres – Murder Mystery/ Espionage/ Cipher trail/ Corporate war/ Indian history – all at once. To the uninitiated, it may almost sound like typical Dan Brown murder mysteries, with touches of geeky intelligence in the forms of anagrams, codes, and puzzles. And the author has not disappointed the readers in that aspect. A well-knit plot, intelligent storytelling, well-crafted characters – these you will be getting for sure from the novel. Writing is simple – with word usages that never make you feel out of the place, and simple sentence constructions with witty humor impressing you throughout.

Overall Rating: 8/10

More Details:
The author on Facebook: Sundip Gorai
The author on Twitter: @goraisundip
The novel on Facebook: ‘Hickory Dickory Shock’
Website: www.hickorydickoryshock.com

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