Book review: The search of they myth- Prithviraj Desai

Title- The Search of the myth

Author- Prithviraj Desai

Publisher- Notion press

ISBN- 978-1-947586-33-8

Page count- 241.

The book ‘The search of the myth’ is the debut book of the Indian writer Prithviraj Desai. The cover of the book is amazing, showing a ship caught in a thunderous storm. Start of the book takes us to the year 1782, where Captain John Coxon is trying to get his ship ‘Grosvenor’ out of the storm. John Coxon who works for the king (Name not given), is assigned the task of safely bringing a big iron casket containing something valuable, from Madras to England. Seeing the storm just getting worse, captain decides to abandon the ship and tries to reach the shore in boats. On the next morning John Coxon, the sole survivor of the storm opens the casket. Casket, which they had risked their lives to save from the storm. After opening the casket he finds nothing but a piece of paper inside, with a puzzle (which is a clue for a treasure) written on it.

After first 2 chapters we are taken to the future, year 2015 in London, where there are two girls Emma and June studying in London College of art. June Fox, brilliant student of history aspires to be an archeologist and treasure hunter just like her father and Grandfather. On June’s birthday celebration night, her grandpa is admitted in hospital for having a heart attack. In the hospital he gives her an envelope, taking promise from June to find it.

Till this point writing mistakes took my mind away from the book. The writing scheme of dialogues is like plays, the books lacks the character/surrounding description. English is too formal and I personally dislike the ‘too much formality’.

After the death of her grandpa, a person named Richard Kovaski threatens June and her family, for the Envelope which contains the hint for a possible treasure. Events lead June to India where she meets an archeologist Shiva, a brilliant man who helps her in finding the treasure. Shiva is incredible in the book but I expected him to be little like Robert Langdon from Dan Brown’s books. I expected Shiva to come with the answers of some clues, which were easy, directly by thinking over them, instead of googling. There are many interesting events in the book like encounter of June with Mr. Kovaski, Shiva helping June with few people that he knows.

The author knows Indian historical places well. I enjoyed reading how they traveled and found clues of the treasure at different places around the country. The wording of clues is amazing and I loved how Prithviraj has written them.  Kovaski’s boss who has been giving him instructions, is hidden till the end, we might get to see him in the next book. I disliked how character June was not given much scope in the book. At the start she was described as an intelligent girl but throughout the book, we don’t get to see her using much of her intelligence. Emma is childish and it is nice to have a character like that in the book. There are few plotholes, few things which don’t make sense, but overall it is ok.

Prithviraj has written a great story, I liked how he has used Indian historical places, has taken readers to different places and amazed me with his knowledge of Indian heritage sites. I will even say that he might be the future 'Dan Brown' of India. The story is amazing and if we ignore the writing mistakes, it is a good read.

Book review by - Jayesh Bhaware
Contact - kingdomofmask@gmail.com