Nishad Mukherjee grew up in the shadow of his father's Kolkata crime syndicate and left for the United States to put an ocean between himself and that world. When news reaches him that his father has died in a shootout, he boards a flight back to India -- and on that flight meets Julie. By the time they land, he is already being pulled back into the syndicate's orbit, now leaderless and therefore dangerous.
What follows is a thriller built around the trail of millions of dollars in mafia money, with the guns and goons and twists that come with it. But Nishad Mukherjee the author -- a scientist by training -- layers a second story beneath the crime plot: India's own estrangement from honest accounts of its past. History, in this telling, is not merely background; it surfaces as an active force, shaping the stakes of the present and connecting personal inheritance to national amnesia.
The book moves fast and keeps its complications manageable enough to read in a sitting, while using the crime structure to ask questions about what it costs to be separated -- from family, from origin, from the true record of where you come from.
-:ABOUT THE BOOK:- In an attempt to escape from his mafia roots, Nishad Mukherjee leaves Kolkata for the United States. His father, the leader of a crime syndicate in Kolkata, India, continues to be an overpowering presence in his life, despite being continents away. Hearing of his father's demise in a shootout, Nishad arrives at Kolkata, only to be thrust into the whirlpool of his father's legacy. With him is the stunning beautiful Julie, who he meets on his flight to India. Guns, goons, twists and turns through Indian history, the story of Nishad's trailing of millions of dollars of mafia money left behind by his father, makes for a gripping, yet quick read. Estranged, is not just the story of Nishad's life away from his father; it is also the story of generations of Indians estranged from the true stories of their country's past. Intrigued? This book is a must-read. Nishad Mukherjee A scientist by training, but a writer at heart.
