आठ दिन

Vikas Gupta #3

by सुरेन्द्र मोहन पाठक

विकास गुप्ता ठग था। उसका कारोबार ठगी करना था जिसे वो हमेशा पूरी कामयाबी से, निहायत खूबसूरती से अंजाम देता था। कत्ल से उसका क्या वास्ता? लेकिन वो वास्ता बना और खामखाह उसके गले पड़ा जब उसने अपनी आँखों के सामने एक कत्ल होते देखा।

368 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 2008

About the author

Surender Mohan Pathak, is an author of Hindi-language crime fiction with 314 books to his credit. His major characters are Crime reporter Sunil (unprecedented 123 Titles), Vimal (46 Titles) and Philosopher Detective Sudhir (23 titles). Apart from series, he has written 60+ Novels in thriller category.

Reviews

[Ashok Sridharan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vikas Gupta, a small time conman living in the fictional metropolis Rajnagar, is on the way back to his hometown when he halts at a petrol pump. There he accidentally witnesses a murder and very nearly gets himself murdered, narrowly escaping with his life.

Needless to say, Vikas is now a marked man playing a cat and mouse game with the murderer. Can he get to the people behind the crime or will they get him first? The resourceful Vikas has to use every trick up his sleeve to save his own skin.

As the title suggests, the novel is set over an 8-day period, during which Vikas battles against the odds to save himself.

Aath Din is an engaging thriller packed with countless surprises along the way. As with any Pathak novel, it is a roller coaster ride. The sheer pace of it seldom gives the opportunity to pause and reflect- no mean achievement for a novel that runs into well over 300 pages.

On the downside is the sheer number of characters. There are so many of them and so many sub-plots along the way that you eventually lose sight of the main plot (which gets resolved barely half way into the novel anyway). Given the high standards S.M. Pathak has set over the course of his legendary career, this novel is a below-par, underwhelming work.

[Kanwal Sharma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aath din -

A cheater - con artist, crook, fraud, and swindler conman does his craftsmanship to con a few thousand dollars this time.

The leading lady - Shabnam - and her con partner - man of dissimulation - Manoharlal - are with him.

Team at work.

But things becomes sour when the protagonist, a hustler, mountebank, scam artist Vikas - becomes an eyewitness spectator to a murder.

Vikas is a hoser, a scammer, but this is much bigger than a con - scam.

Vikas has to get out of this bullshit impending jeopardous, and a portentous pressing risky serious and serpentine shaky affair of events.

Result is -

Eight days of terrible, dreadful, gruesome, harrowing, obnoxious, and seriously rotten and ugly chain of events.

A syndicate of politician, land grabber, two beautiful sisters and one undependable and unfaithful wife,.

Coccktail of a pure entertainment.

Eight days of sizzling roasting and scalding turmoil.

[Rajan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A murder mystery of Vikas series. No sunil or sudhir.