Maya, the blindfolded: Her Mistake? She trusted him by Prasad Bag – Book Review

Now that I have read a good number of books in 2022, it’s time to review some of them in quick succession. And I would like to begin with the latest one that I have read. Prasad Bag has debuted with his novel Maya, the Blindfolded: Her Mistake? She Trusted Him. The moment I saw this title, it became evident that suspense and thrill are going to play big parts in this novel. I was right. However, I did not expect horror to kick in and enthral me all along. The novel is a mixture of horror, murder mystery, investigation and thriller. It does not give the readers much time to find a breather in between… so, you better be ready to get to the end if you want to read this novel.

The story is pretty straightforward. However, the backstories and conspiracies are amazingly knit by the writer. Prasad Bag has embedded hallucination, ghost sighting, conversation with the dead, seeds of believing in the supernatural and then a very well-balanced living-dead partnership that helps Maya, the protagonist, rescue herself from a weird and tense situation in life – being accused of a Murder she remembers nothing about. Now you can guess that the story is straightforward – a woman has to prove her innocence. However, how and why are so well threaded that readers will have a treat reading this novel!

There are certain loopholes in the novel as well. For instance, the biggest one is that you will seldom find a clearly defined motif once you identify the real culprit behind the murder of Mrs. Pinto, the colleague of Maya at her workplace. However, that does not change much for the readers in terms of reading pleasure or excitement. Michael, Sarah, Suzy, Mrs. Pinto and Roy, and Sam play their roles beautifully as supporting characters and dubious faces who can be portrayed as the plot demands. Character sketches are very well managed by the novelist.

I might have dissented against the language used by the author. However, the language is just moderate enough to be read by readers who savour and enjoy literature rather than interpreting and analysing it. And on that front, the language employed by Prasad Bag is just right and it will serve the purpose very well. There is no doubt about that. The narrative is okay and it could have been paced uniformly rather than being slow in patches, at times. However, we can expect that in the very first work of a new author. Readers will only notice slow speed if they are careful enough. Otherwise, you just go on reading the novel and inquiring about what happens next.

The treatment of horror and thriller is nicely managed by the writer. Maya is at the centre of everything that happens in the novel. She believes in ghosts and her friends believe she is gradually slipping into hallucination. I will leave that part for you to discover. You will find it more than merely interesting.

Grab a copy in Kindle format from Amazon India right now and read the novel. The link is below:

Get a Kindle copy from Amazon now – click here 

Review by Lucky for Desi Readers