8 The Game is On by Swapnil Khamkar

I selected "8: The Game is On" by Swapnil Khamkar when I checked the tagline on the back cover.  '1 ship; 2 deaths; 3 cops; 400 murders; 500 years; 60 days; 7 countries; 8 artifacts – Let the adventure begin!' 

A catchy line doesn't it...! Yes, I also thought same when I have first looked at this book. 

Book Blurb

History holds a lot in its pages. But till when can truth be hidden?

Neel is a cop investigating the mysterious death of a famous film director. In the middle of a divorce case with his wife Avantika and amidst thoughts of resigning from his job, will he be able to find the culprit?

A five-hundred-year old sunken ship belonging to Vasco da Gama is discovered off the coast in Oman. It is well known that the ship sank with thousands of artefacts in it. Out of them, eight artefacts are missing in specific. Do they have some connection with the film director’s death?

Neel tries to unearth the truth behind the missing artefacts to find clues to questions nobody else can answer. Join Neel as he tries to find the truth behind 8! 1 ship; 2 deaths; 3 cops; 400 murders; 500 years; 60 days; 7 countries; 8 artefacts – Let the adventure begin!

The author started narrating the storyline in a thriller way by portraying a murder which was staged like suicide. A south Indian movie like cop comes to the story. With his Sherlock Holmes-like skill and observations, he excludes suicide and deduced it to a murder. As the murder investigation was just started getting somewhere the cop dropped the case and went to another plot only to meet the former afterward. 

The story becomes romantic drama rather than a thriller in next part. Working with his would be divorced wife over a mission, clearing the misunderstanding and falling in love again. And after that, treasure hunt began. I found fewer details and more pace in this part. 

No doubt the author has done some research over the whole Esmeralda Tragedy and also about the cities mentioned in the story. He has done a good work with that but after all, the story fails to hold. Swapnil Khamkar's writing skills are good as a debutant but I missed that touch. I wish him best luck in his future endeavor.

Ratings:

1. Cover: 3/5
2. Characters: 2/5
3. Concept: 3/5
4. Overall: 2/5

Book can be found at Amazon & Flipkart

Review from other readers can be found at GoodReads