Title: Faith and the Beloved
Author: Kochery Shibu
Genre: Crime thriller
First Publication: 2020
Language: English
Major Characters: Alice Cherokil, Naithy Cherokil, Prem Rollands, Tony D’Souza
Narrator: Third person omniscient
Book Summary: Faith and the Beloved by Kochery Shibu
Naithy Cherokil is a rich and successful business woman from Mumbai who marries the young and handsome model Tony D’Souza after the death of her husband. Little does she know that the ideal sex slave of her husband is the sleeper cell of a terror outfit. Events in her life take unforeseen turns as the male Mata Hari is activated.
Prem Rollands is a kalari exponent and brilliant student whose world revolves around his brother Arun. Things go awry when the police kills Arun under mysterious circumstances. Prem kills the inspector in retribution and is on the run. He is on the lookout for Alice to find out the dark secrets leading to the killing of his brother. Prem must avenge those who have plotted to kill his brother, even at the cost of his own life.
Eighteen year old Alice Cherokil knows more about computers and mystery games than a girl of her age. Alice’s life falls apart when her mother is hospitalised and in a coma. Alice is playing the ultimate mystery game of her life as the web of secrets surrounding two precious diamonds and her stepfather threaten to destroy her family. Alice overcomes moral dilemma to kill her stepfather and she is on the run. She must outwit the underworld and stay ahead of all to save her mother’s life or the guilt of her failure will haunt her forever.
As the lives of Naithy, Prem and Alice cross each other they must retain their faith and protect their beloved ones even at the cost of their own lives.
A saga of love, lust, betrayal, intrigue and revenge.
Book Review: Faith and the Beloved by Kochery Shibu
Everyone in this book is absolutely terrible, and as a result, this book is a masterpiece in character study and development. It’s also a well-written, precisely plotted thriller, and deftly sketches one interesting character after another. You won’t be able to put down the book once you crossed the first chapter particularly because the author drops so many diverting and convincing red herrings into the story.
Faith and the Beloved by Kochery C Shibu opens with a murder of Tony D’Souza by nerdy girl Alice Cherokil. Alice’s mother Naithy Cherokil, who lost her husband and marries again to Tony D’Souza, is a young successful businesswoman. Another interesting character is Prem Rolland who comes from a small village Kishanganj and His brother Arun Rolland was killed by police. The lives of these three characters, Alice, Naithy and Prem intersect and the web of love, lust, faith and betrayal begins.
Starts with a knife plunged into heart, Faith and the Beloved becomes very gripping in short time; and as the story progresses, it becomes even grippier still, maintaining that spectacular atmosphere from beginning to the end. A certified good thriller. I think it’s also interesting that the central characters, Alice, Naithy and Prem, challenges readers to think about how much we assume about–and pre-judge–other people based on our limited knowledge of them. To feel pity, disgust, frustration, compassion, and so much more for a character is a rare thing.
Faith and the Beloved is captivating from the first to the last page. This book has all the elements of a modern thriller: an international smuggling racket, terrorism, multiple storyline and likable characters.
In my personal opinion, this book passes the mystery-thriller-suspense-crime criteria with flying colors! What makes me say this has a great deal to do with the hypnotic writing style of the author- there is something eerie but magnetic with it and it is a huge mystery to me how the author is able to put across layers of meanings in the simplest thoughts and the most mundane phrases the characters utter.
And this brings me to the last thing I want to focus on. The writing. I appreciated the fact that Kochery Shibu uses a clear, sharp language to narrate point of view of each characters. There are no frivolities in those characters’ thoughts, the prose is eerie, almost haunting in parts. The dialogues are on the same level, equally sharp and minimalistic. The author did a fine job of leading us to the final outcome and a believable ending without any unexplained surprises.
