Bunker 13 India - Softcover

Aniruddha Bahal

3.21

180 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571218997 ISBN 13: 9780571218998

Publisher: Faber And Faber Ltd., 2003

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A brilliant international thriller, set in contemporary Kashmir, about an investigative journalist, espionage, and the temptations of drugs, sex, and corruption in the Indian Army

Our hero, known as MM, is a pleasure-seeking journalist working for an upstart Indian newsweekly. He is also an ex–army cadet with political connections, able to secure exclusive and dangerous assignments in the armed forces with the promise that he’ll write about his experiences. But MM has ulterior motives. Over a period of years he has been clandestinely investigating a source of corruption in the guerrilla war on India’s frontier: in the midst of skirmishes with the “Mossies” in Kashmir, the sale of arms and drugs—often back to the insurgents they have been seized from—is an ever-renewable source of profit.

MM hits the jackpot when a brutal border-patrol raid on which he is tagging along uncovers an emormous cache of both arms and high-grade heroin; but the goods in hand also provide him with a tempting brokerage opportunity.

Knowing, cynical, highly capable, and deeply motivated, MM is an intriguing new postmodern hero. His action-packed narration of his daredevil, drug- and sex-drenched dangerous life is world-class suspense of an entirely new kind.

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About the Author:

Aniruddha Bahal, a reporter for India’s leading newspapers, has exposed illegal arms-trading in the Indian government as well as match-fixing in international cricket. Bunker 13 is his first novel.

From Publishers Weekly:

Bahal, an investigative journalist from India, made headlines when he and his colleagues at Tehelka.com, an audacious Indian investigative news source, videotaped senior officials accepting bribes. To make the tapes, the reporters pretended to be rich businessmen. Bahal's first novel reads very much along these lines. His protagonist, MM, is a tough-as-nails ex-army officer turned investigative journalist with a penchant for risk, drugs and rough sex. Covering the army, MM learns that a small band of corrupt officers in Kashmir are engaged in smuggling drugs and weapons, and he soon becomes involved in an intricate web of guerrilla fighting, espionage, Russian mobsters and nuclear missiles. MM is a complex hero, a cynical and dissipated man who makes sentences such as "there's an art to drawing a gun" sound natural, but who is also principled. Some readers may grow weary of his relentless tough-guy posturing, but Bahal's use of the second person heightens suspense and adds psychological depth, and ample information about regional politics, warfare and journalism in India fills out the novel. The most serious problem is the awkward syntax, which considerably slows the pace ("You are in the mood for some luxury, and even though the hotel you have pitched camp in, bordering Dal Lake, isn't luxurious, it is better than the squatter mess settlements that the Western Command is most likely to put at your disposal"). Those who can get past the rough prose will find an offbeat, fun thriller.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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