Thou Shalt Not Kill

Covent Garden, London

Humans cannot be devoid of emotions. Tragedies and disasters tend to follow if we allow ourselves to be carried away by our anger and hatred that is seething inside and  morbid thoughts that swirl in our heads. Vendettas and vengeance never end well both in life and fictions. Skewed obsessions and aggression definitely threaten one’s sanity. Sometimes the line between sanity and insanity is such a fine one.

 Every single thought can affect how we act and lead to irreversible consequences that affect not only ourselves but all those around us. We have to watch our thoughts. If  we engage ourselves  in certain twisted thoughts, we  may get ourselves screwed up making us act in the way we will live to regret. Every thought we conceive and every step we make in our daily life matters. We say things in a moment of anger or frustration and they can no longer be retracted. Sometimes no amount of damage control can alter or rectify the effect and impact of the things that had been said, acts or omissions that had been committed.

A good friend who is an avid reader recommended the new book written by the author of Q&A/Slumdog Millionaire, Vikas Swarup. The Accidental Apprentice is a page turn and there are many twists and turn as the story unfolds and definitely kept me in suspense in one sitting last Sunday. A very interesting concept as the story started with the protagonist, Sapna Sinha being approached by a billionaire industrialist who wanted to make her the CEO of his company. She was told that no prior business experience was required and all she needed to do was to pass seven tests and the moment she accepted the offer, the tests began. Vinay Mohan Acharya, chairman of the ABC Group was the Business of the Year 2008 and the first lesson that he had  told Sinha was this ‘In life you never get what you deserve : you get what you negotiate’. The story tells us that all that happens is linked from the beginning and life gives us what we deserve. A powerful message indeed. 

A couple of months ago, I picked up the book “The Silent Wife” by A.S.A.Harrison. The Silent Wife is a chilling story about a couple that head for catastrophe and the outcome keeps the reader in suspense. Both Jodi and Todd are at a bad place in their marriage. He is a committed cheater and she lives and breathes denial until the time she has to confront her predicament and her choices.It is a psychological thriller and the story is told from the husband’s perspective and also the wife’s. The chapters alternate between 'HIM' and 'HER'. In the first chapter 'HER', Harrison  wrote,“ At forty-five, Jodi still sees herself as a young woman. She does not have her eye set on the future but lives very much in the moment, keeping her focus on the everyday. She assumes, without having thought about it, that things will go on indefinitely in their imperfect yet entirely acceptable way. In other words, she is deeply unaware that her life is now peaking, that her youthful resilience --which her twenty-year marriage to Todd Gilbert has been slowly eroding-- is approaching a final stage of disintegration, that her notions about who she is and how she ought to conduct herself are far less stable than she supposes, given that a few short months are all it will take to make a killer out of her.”

The Cuckoo’s Calling is a crime fiction written by JK Rowling using her pseudonym, Robert Galbraith that caused some controversy when the true identity of the new author was unveiled. A model falls to her death from her apartment balcony, the police investigation has shown that it is a suicide however, her brother has his doubts and engages Cormoran Strike to investigate into the case. It is a delight to read a story that is set against the backdrop of London, one of my favourite cities in the world. 

Both The Silent Wife and The Cuckoo’s calling are very well written thrillers. In these stories, one’s hatred can shape one’s sanity and misguided passion can totally change one’s psyche.  While these stories describe the dark side of human nature, whodunits can be refreshing reads as it is always exciting to guess the killers in  these thrillers.

Langkawi, Malaysia