ravisubramanian-blog

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5 things the Budget missed

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Bollywood is plot-bankrupt, while stories rot in bookstores

Bollywood is plot-bankrupt, while stories rot in bookstores - my latest blogpost

For the past few years, my daughter and I have been going for movies almost every  weekend. Apart from popcorn, pepsi and pizza, it is also our own little bonding time. We would intentionally choose a theatre reasonably far from home. The drive back home, the fight over the silly millennial songs vs Hindi music,  late night coffee (if we made it to a Starbucks before closing time) was all part of…

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Lessons from a decade in publishing

Lessons from a decade in publishing

  26th June 2017, as my latest thriller novel, In The Name Of God eased into the bookstores and even as the online preorder deliveries began, the significance of the occasion was not lost on me. It was on the same day, 10 years back that I stood on the small dais at Crossword Book Store, Kemps Corner, Mumbai, launching my first book. I stood there like a hero. A proud author flaunting his…

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Research is only as good as the fiction you spin it into

Insights into the research I did for my new thriller, IN THE NAME OF GOD. Out in Stores now.

Buy IN THE NAME OF GOD, my latest thriller: Click Here 

*** As it appeared in Mumbai Mirror ***

Fiction writers are always advised to write what they know about. But what if you are tackling unfamiliar terrain? Ravi Subramanian has a few answers.

Two years ago, on a rainy July afternoon, I stepped out of my hotel in Thiruvananthapuram and asked the cab driver to take me to the iconic Sree…

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IN THE NAME OF GOD - Chapter 1

Here's the 1st chapter of IN THE NAME OF GOD, my next thriller. Preorder : mzn.to/2pWpnZz 

I am delighted to share with you the first chapter of IN THE NAME OF GOD, my latest thriller that  releases on June 26. In line with my earlier books, this thriller too has short, fast paced chapters. Nothing establishes this more than the first chapter of the book which is hardly a page long. The story opens in the vicinity of the Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple, in Thiruvananthapuram (the temple…

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My daughter once accused me of reading like an assignment. This accusation, while it irritated me, also made me ponder over it. What made her feel so? The more I thought about it, the more it became clearer to me. My preferred genre of reading is crime thrillers – books by Harlan Coben, Jo Nesbo, David Baldacci, James Patterson, Ashwin Sanghi and a few others – and I write crime thrillers.

It is quite possible that because of this, when I am reading crime thrillers, my mind, inadvertently moves into the evaluation space. i.e. I am constantly evaluating the books that I read. It is either, ‘Oh my god! Why couldn’t I have written like this?’ or ‘Had I written this piece, this is how I would have written. This doesn’t read as good as it should.’ Maybe that’s why when I read, it looks like an assignment. Continuously evaluating. Continuously learning.

Haven’t discussed this with any other author, so not sure if this ails the others too.

That said, I do read quite a bit. I read almost everything that comes my way. I am very adventurous with authors but not very, with genres. I am not a great fan of serious, heavy writing. I prefer simple, short sentences, light on prose. Over the last few months I have read a number of thrillers. Here is a short list of thrillers that I have read in the recent past and which are on top of my ‘recommended reads’ list.

A Midsummer’s Equation by Keigo Higashino : Manabu Yukawa, a physicist travels to a summer resort town to address a conference. While he is there, a guest from the hotel where he is staying lands up dead on the sea shore. The cops suspect that the guest had fallen off the cliffs but the autopsy throws up a completely different angle. The guest had died of carbon monoxide poisoning. That’s when they begin a murder investigation. In his trademark fashion Keigo Higashino makes the reader a part of his journey as he unravels the mystery and solves the murder. A brilliant read. Keigo Higashino Special.

Fool Me Once : Harlan Coben : While I read it a few months back, I have just got to know that this is going to be made into a Hollywood film with Julia Roberts being the protagonist. A brilliant thriller which silently treads into the realms of Psychological thrillers. A Harlan Coben special. A woman comes back home from work to see her husband turn up on her nanny cam, that she has installed for her kid. But there is only one complication. The husband was brutally killed two weeks ago. How is it that he is there on her nanny cam now? Harlan Coben takes you on this roller coaster ride where Maya has to unravel the mystery behind her husband’s sudden appearance. Unputdownable.

Veerappan : Chasing the Brigand – By K Vijay Kumar : It is a true story. The problem with true story is that it is always challenging to keep the pace, the thrill and the intrigue at the highest level throughout the book. Vijay Kumar has managed to do exactly that in the story of a forest brigand who was a terror for everyone when he was alive. A high Octane thriller – a true story which reads like fiction.

Flawless : by Scott Andrew Selby and Greg Campbell : One of the few howdunit that has intrigued me. In 2003, representatives of an Italian mafia, infiltrated the Antwerp Diamond District and conducted, what at that time, was the largest diamond heist ever- and made off with $108 Mn worth diamonds. Not a drop of blood was shed, no bullets fired, no one hurt. It remains a perfect heist to have ever been conducted. What makes it intriguing was the timing of the heist. It was conducted on a Valentines Day weekend. The authors, after meticulous research tell the story of what went behind the heist – the planning, the execution and the escape have been brilliantly laid out in a very intriguing, pacy, non-technical manner. To me, till date, it remains one of the best heist books to have ever been written.

Conclave : Robert Harris : A quasi-political thriller which begins with the most tragic events the globe would ever witness. The death of a Pope. What follows is a series of political and religious manipulations, that take place between the time the Pope is pronounced dead to the world and the election of the next Pope. It captures brilliantly the aspiration of the cardinals, the behind the scene negotiations, the backstabbing, the lobbying and the angst caused by a few dramatic and unexpected events. Robert Harris plays a subtle political card here without being too brash about it.

Found dead : By Shantanu Guha Ray : There is something about murders in high places that intrigues us, kindles our curiosity and makes most of us turn into shameless gossipers. Shantanu Guha Ray possibly wanted to pander to this part of the human mind when he wrote Found Dead. Whatever his intent, he has produced a brilliant book that has looked at murder most heinous, death most terrible and acts most shameless. Impeccable research, hours of interviews have gone behind the unraveling of the cruelest conspiracies in India. Investigations into the murders of high profile individuals – Sheena Bora, Ponty Chadha, Sunanda Pushkar, Neeraj Grover, Jiah Khan etc – form the backbone of the book. Stories behind the scenes, that possibly your newspapers never told you.

Bookshots by James Patterson. : International Master of Crime Thrillers, one of the most successful and innovative writers ever, has come out with a series of Short Thrillers. These are 110-130 pages long, stories which can be read in a couple of hours. Never short on Adrenalin, these are high octane thrillers which you can complete in a couple of hours. While at the end of it, you will not remember the title of the book or the coauthor who has worked with Patterson, these books will thrill you to bits. I have read 11 of these books and I have loved each one of them. You cannot let go of them, once you have picked them up. Give it a shot… a Bookshot.

When I look back at the list, one thing strikes me. There are three true stories in there. Veerappan, Flawless and Found Dead. Believe me, it was not by intention. It only goes to show that if written well, true stories make better thrillers than fictionalized one. And there is a reason for that. The shock value of things when they happen in real life is exponentially bigger than when we read about it in fiction. We often dismiss things in real life while we are willing to accept them in fiction. For example, the murders that Shantanu Guha Ray talks about, were all unprecedented when they happened. The heist at the Antwerp Diamond District, one of the safest square miles in world, was unprecedented when it happened. Veerappan’s antics were unprecedented.

Well in life … everything is unprecedented till it happens for the first time. And that adds to the beauty of thrillers based on real life incidents.

  This write up of mine was first carried by Timesofindia.com at http://toi.in/rx-z_a

Thrillers that I liked My daughter once accused me of reading like an assignment. This accusation, while it irritated me, also made me ponder over it.

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IN THE NAME OF GOD

IN THE NAME OF GOD - my latest thriller releases in End June. Preorder today.

For any author it is a moment of great pride to see his book out in print. I have had many of those moments. Despite such beingthe case, every time a book comes out, butterflies begin to fly in my belly. My heart begins to palpitate and I start biting my nails even more. The feeling of nervous anticipation is a feeling which will never go away, irrespective of the number of books that you have…

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Chetan Bhagat is not an idiot

Chetan Bhagat is neither an idiot nor a literary thief.

Surprise is a small word. It didn’t surprise me when I read about Anvita Bajpai’s accusation of plagiarism and court case against Chetan Bhagat. It SHOCKED me.

You could read about it here: Economic Times Article.

My first instinct was, why didn’t Anvita Bajpai write to the publisher and the author asking them for a possible explanation. And then I rationalised saying maybe she did and they…

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Don't lead a pack of sheep. Herd cats instead

My latest blogpost : DON'T LEAD A PACK OF SHEEP. HERD CATS INSTEAD

“Don’t lead a pack of sheep. Herd cats instead.” When I first read this statement it took me a while to understand its true meaning.

In modern-day corporate life, leaders often have the flexibility to pick their own teams. Most of them stumble at this roadblock. Mediocre managers don’t often realise the enormous ability this gives them to define their own career. They end up choosing team members…

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Eight ‘not to be missed’ reads for children At Enchantico, our endeavour has been to send out specially curated and carefully picked, age appropriate books for children in the age group 5-12.

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e-books vs paper books

e-books / paper books - What's better for Children?

Here is a blog I wrote for www.enchantico.in ; India’s first book subscription box for kids. 

  Click image to go to www.enchantico.in

  The eBooks vs Paper books fight has been going on for some time now. Unfortunately, I fail to understand what the row is about!

To digress a little… Years ago, a long distance relationship would mean that we couldn’t talk to or meet our near-and- dear ones for…

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IF ONLY .... My reaction to the government action in taking the high value currency notes out of circulation ... in a way .. my ode to the publishing industry

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