Reviewer
Lavanya Karthik: Lavanya is from Mumbai, India and is a licensed
architect and consultant in environmental management. She lives in
Mumbai with her husband and six-year old daughter. She loves reading
and enjoys a diverse range of authors across genres.
Author: Preetham
Grandhi
Publisher: Sweetwater Books
ISBN: 978-1-59955-235-4
Click Here To Purchase A Circle of Souls
In ‘A Circle of Souls’, a small town in
Connecticut becomes the scene of the horrific murder of a young girl.
Meanwhile, in the same town, psychiatrist Peter Gram begins treating
a seven year old Indian girl , Naya Hastings, with a history of vivid
dreams. The child begins drawing images from her dreams, which
gradually connect to the murder, an event she could not possibly have
had prior knowledge of. As he interacts with Naya, Gram begins
to unearth evidence that forces him to look beyond scientific
rationale, and in turn leads him to assist FBI agent Leia Bines in
her hunt for the killer. As they hurtle towards a chilling
climax, Gram finds he must come to terms with his role in a
greater chain of events begun even before his birth.
Debut
author Preetham Grandhi, himself a psychiatrist working with children
and adolescents, uses his insider’s knowledge of the
profession well, to give the reader a peek into the world of
pediatric psychiatry. This is most apparent in the scenes based
inside the children’s psychiatric ward of the hospital Gram works
in. Grandhi weaves some interesting sub plots into
the narrative as well - events in their pasts that continue to
haunt Bines and Gram, for instance, or Naya’s interactions with
Sasha, a troubled inmate at the hospital. Given the resemblance
between the names of author and protagonist I wonder how much of
himself Grandhi has invested in Gram.
‘A
Circle..’ is a well structured, edge of the seat thriller
that neatly marries psychiatry with the paranormal. While it
does follow a rather textbook trajectory as a thriller , from
ritualistic slaying to violent climax, it is nevertheless a one that
is both smooth and swift. The one part of the book I was
disappointed with was the section where Naya’s uncle reveals the
prophecies of the Seekers and Seeked Ones (‘Sought Ones’,
surely?) to Gram. While it is based on the ancient and revered
art of ‘naadi’ astrology still practiced in South India, it still
feels like a contrived and hurried explanation for the turns the plot
subsequently takes. And while it offers an intriguing insight
into an alternative system of belief , I had to wonder if
the plot might in fact have benefited by avoiding such an explanation
altogether, and leaving readers to draw their own
conclusions .
For the reader willing to suspend belief
in the rational, this is an engrossing tale of rebirth, preordained
fate and retribution .