A Minute to Death by Enakshi Johri

Summary

“Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live”. It is not always necessary that anxiety or depression consumes your desire to live. There have been many instances where passion overrides the capability of thinking logically and the end results are disastrous. “A minute to death” by Ganga Bharani is one such story that takes the readers through a whirlpool of emotions ranging from passion, happiness, love to obsession, distress and eventually death. This novella is a mysterious tale about Rohan and Riya, who are deeply and irrevocably in love with each other. Rohan is a devoted policeman, who abides by word of mouth and places his work on the topmost pedestal. Opposite him is Riya, who is an aspiring writer and has an obsession of getting published. Where Rohan is keen on solving the murder mysteries and preventing the crimes. 

My opinion

Don’t we all hope to die with a smile on our faces? Well, “A minute to death” is all about death. This short tale is about passion, love, life and death. Rohan and Riya are awesome twosomes, who complement each other very well. The readers are able to portray Rohan as an ideal boyfriend who is ready to go any extremes to win the girl he loves.

The title of the book is apt and the cover is catchy. The narration is lucid and keeps the readers focused on what is going to happen next. The characters are well crafted. The plot moves at a comfortable pace and the mystery continues till the very end. However, the part where Rohan takes Riya with him to the interrogation and crime scene is a little absurd.

The story gives out a message, loud and clear, that obsession with passion can have severe consequences. There were some parts where the loose ends were left hanging. How did Riya manage to communicate or get in touch with the two victims or if Riya was “Febbon”, why did she want to get published so desperately? These questions befuddle the readers and leave a void in the flow of the plot.

Overall, a good read for all those who crave for mystery and crime genre. Best wishes to the author!

Drawbacks

Time and again you can spot syntactical, grammatical and punctuation errors which disrupt the flow. The proofreading has not been done properly (A dialogue should not be ended with a full stop if it doesn’t end the whole sentence).