Saturday, 25 October 2014

Review of 'Fraudster' by 'R V Raman'

Blurb: There are people who will do anything to silence the ones who come in their way, those who will stop at nothing, including murder.

A young banker is found dead a day after she deposes before a commission investigating large-scale financial fraud...
A doyen of corporate India falls to his death from his south Bombay flat...
A high-security server room of a multinational accounting firm is hacked and the hackers aren't looking for just company secrets...

Illicit finance, high-stakes crime and vicious manipulation come together in this story of corruption, greed and treachery among corporate India's black sheep. Arresting, fast-paced and written by an insider from the corporate world, Fraudster will keep you on your toes till the very end.


Verdict: ‘Fraudster’ is the debut novel of R V Raman. Among very few corporate thrillers in India, this book would definitely set a mark for itself. The blurb is so interesting that any reader can pick this book for the arresting blurb.

The cover looks interesting and reminds me of a similar series by Ravi Subramanian. Being in the same genre and the same sort of target audience this cover will surely help the author. The name perfectly goes with the content where the whole story revolves around a fraudster. As I earlier said the blurb was so interesting that one can not drop the book after reading it.

The plot is a corporate thriller and revolves around higher corporate circles and renowned banks. Where properties are overvalued at 4 or 5 times and loans have been given on those properties.  The book starts with a murder of a girl, one of the bankers, which was toppled by the commission created to deal with the fraud. This gives the book a head start and the following two murders of two highly respected personalities of the corporate sectors, who are somehow related with the commission will keep the suspense alive. Inspector Ranade and Varsha’s (one of the protagonist) quest to connect the dots and find the fraudster and the killer is how the rest of the story goes.

The second half of the book was more interesting and the surprising elements in the end like the crazy car chase and kidnappings will give the readers a thrilling read. The narrating style is simple and goes with the flow of the story. The inside details of the corporate field and the hacking part is described wonderfully and anyone without prior knowledge of banking transaction or loans can easily enjoy the story.

The characterization was pretty ordinary and was unable to give a lasting effect to the readers. From Varsha to inspector Ranade, all characters seems pretty ordinary and straight to the point and it was the narrating style of the author which will keep the audience hooked. If the vision of the culprit was a bit clearer and if the author had concentrated on the description of the motive a bit more, I would have called it a perfect read. The author has very efficiently left all the clues open to the readers to keep the guessing game going on and one will definitely appreciate the author for framing such an enjoyable climax.

Overall this book has a good plot and a trendy narrating style which will keep the suspense alive till the end without dropping the speed except few places where the author has exaggerated the description of the corporate details.


Final Words: Author R V Raman has done a commendable job in his first corporate thriller and will entertain all sorts of thriller lovers with this book. It is certainly one of the best corporate thriller I have ever read and would give Ravi Subramanian a run for the money.


Title: Fraudster
Author: R V Raman
Publisher: Hachette
Page Count: 289
My Rating: 4/5


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