BOOK REVIEW
Book Title: The Black Orphan
Author: S. Hussain Zaidi
Publisher: HarperCollins India
Number of Pages: 248
ISBN: 978-9354899973
Date Published: May 8, 2024
Price: INR 258
I must state at the outset that The Black Orphan is the first book of S. Hussain Zaidi’s that I have read. I came to it with expectations based on his credentials of having been a journalist and an author who has had some of his previous books adapted to the screen by leading film makers. The catchy blurb on the back cover was enticing, besides which his declaration in the Author’s Note was also quite persuasive - “ For this book----I owe a debt of gratitude to the biggest source of inspiration for my fiction- fact.”
Zaidi’s plot has some skilful stirring of real events from recent history into a heady mix of conjecture and chase by senior cops (DIG, Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of Police), terrorists, spies and detectives. The death of Osama Bin Laden gets ingeniously connected to developments post India’s successful nuclear initiative and the ensuing conspiracy theories around three of India’s leading nuclear scientists of the time being found dead. The unravelling of murder or suicide theories reel in bigger circles of intrigue and caprice! There is some more flavour added to the brewing concoction - that of ‘honey traps’ that have traditionally been the undoing of many an extra smart operator! All very plausible and believable!
The main protagonist, DIG Ajay Rajvardhan is the quintessential hero – good looking, bright and on the ball. Well regarded by his boss the Commissioner Neeraj Kumar and his own colleagues, Ajay displays a sharp mind and physical prowess in dealing with challenges he is up against. There is an equally gifted female character Asiya Khan, whose beauty catches his interest even though she is a passionate defence lawyer out to defend a suspected terrorist. Sparks fly, there are whiffs of romance as the action and intrigue picks up momentum, with unexpected twists and turns, to race to an exciting climax.
Zaidi mounts this gripping plot on a canvas that spans the workings of the Indian Atomic Research Center (IARC), the Indian Police Service (IPS), the National Investigative Agency (NIA), the CIA, R and AW agencies and the mysterious worlds of terrorism, crime and cyber warfare. He then colours the canvas with a tinge of patriotism or the lack of it as the reader gets drawn into the fast pace of the story telling. The tussle between the good guys and the rotten ones pivots on the fluid understanding of what is ethical and what is not. The deft world building gives the reader insights into how these well known but little understood conglomerates handle real crime like hacking, hawala, crypto worms, code words, AI and cyber weapons.
While Zaidi’s riveting plot is vivid, his delineation of characters is not! One does not get to know them well enough to be actually invested in them as real people. Except perhaps at the climax when all defences are down and the fight becomes a question of survival, the brush strokes are broad but not detailed enough for us to get personally involved with them. Just like “shoulder surfing”, the reader is somewhat only looking in instead of biting his/her nails right through.
The book is closer in that sense to a screenplay as the focus is more on the action, almost like scene units, with little by way of tonality of shades of characterisation in the players! All in all, a book that will lend itself well to a screen adaptation.
