Enthralling readers for centuries, crime fiction is a genre which contains promising potential to surprise its apostles. From classic detective stories to gripping psychological thrillers, the best crime books offer suspenseful plots, complex characters, and unexpected twists which keep readers glued to pages until the very end. One of the reasons crime fiction has always retained its charms and popularity is that it provides a window into the darker side of human psyche. The genre is often used to explore themes such as justice, morality, and the consequences of one’s actions. Similarly, “The Taste of Midnight” by an eminent Indian author, Sanjeev Bansal is one such book that keeps the readers on the edges of their reading chairs till the narrative concludes. The story follows Mike, a twenty-eight-year-old man coming to terms with immense grief and guilt after having an altercation with his friend, Stella. Together with his detective friend Stephen, he begins to unravel the layers of confusion surrounding intriguing incidents.
Taking recourse to his literary acumen and profound creativity, the novelist has been remarkably successful in weaving the fabric of a world which is connected to the present lives of human beings, and yet, the readers remain at the seat of a third person. Indubitably, the readers are fully able to resonate with the characters but still they follow the pattern of objectivity and act as the detached observers in spite of having been completely absorbed in the process of unraveling of shrouded mysteries associated with the story. The dark facts of human life are brought into light in the book which give the readers an in-depth idea about the subterranean shoddy crevices of human mind. These elements form the fragment of human lives in the first place and help us understand the basic instincts of man.
If plot is the bones upon which the meat of your story hangs, then surely characters are the heart and soul. “A writer creates a character as a way to reveal and emphasize consciousness — to extend the pitch of human possibility,” as the novelist Don Delillo so perfectly put it. In quite a same fashion, the novelist Sanjeev Bansal has very deftly and sensibly created all of his characters. It will be fully pertinent to mention here that the author has, to a large extent, adhered to “ The Theory of Probability and Relatability” expounded by great Greek master Aristotle in his magnum opus work “Poetics”. The characters of Bansal are from us. It appears as if they walk with us shoulder to shoulder in our real world. If Art is not a mere blind imitation of ideas, it is rather reality recreated, It must be prudent to remark that the author has commendably recreated this reality with his fecund imagination. With quite an excellent skillfulness, the writer transports the readers inside Mike’s head( Mike is of the chief protagonists of the novel) as he analyses clues, thoughts and ideas and strives to disentangle the riddle.
The concluding part of the book is also replete with uncanny twists and bizarre turns which immeasurably intensify the curiosity in readers impelling them to turn the pages with bated breaths.
Couched in easy-to-comprehend language that reflects the linguistic competence of the author, the narrative offers a dose of suspense, mystery and thrill extraordinaire.