From the lush beaches of Thailand, to the gritty streets of India, to the political battles of New York City and the business empires of the American South, welcome to the second volume of The Brotherhood Chronicle: The Run and Hide.

Niral Solanke, the awkward private investigator from The Brotherhood, is surviving in a sinister Thai underworld when he receives an assignment that reunites him with the Hindu religious organization The Brotherhood and its new leader Bhai.

What follows is a balance of loyalties, a test of wills, and an examination of trustworthy sources as Niral is mired in a new set of international adventures. Meanwhile we follow a cast of characters including detectives, politicians, drug dealers, prostitutes and many others as they dance along the wire of chaos and order, deities and doom, in this next volume of The Brotherhood Chronicle.

Out September 16, 2019

419 Pages approx.

MY THOUGHTS:

I received this book in exchange for my honest review.

Following book one, The Brotherhood, we now are into book two. I struggled with this book and needed to read it twice. Not because it was a bad book, but it just had a lot to it to absorb.

Here are the things I’d like note from my reading experience:

The two books do belong together, in that, each builds or reflects back upon the writing of the other. Without one, the next book wouldn’t make sense or be as appreciative in its existence.

The character development continues from book one to two with each character’s personality and importance to the story-line being exposed to the reader more. I don’t think this is where the author excels, mind you, the characters do have levels and are multi-layered, and perhaps maybe too exposed at times. I felt there were things I didn’t really need to know about each but where the author delved deeply into at times.

I don’t want anyone to think this author isn’t good with character development, because that is not true. There is strong evidence regarding Tejas’s ability to create personalities and complexities in his characters, it’s just that at times, his characters seemed to fade away or disconnect from the story at times. I hope this makes sense.

What shines for the author is his usage of language.

There is strong ability in creating wonderful and fully realized settings which he shows throughout this book more than the first, giving the reader the feeling that the author has written this story based on first-hand experiences. If the author has not visited these places yet has written so eloquently about them, he is truly remarkable.

His use of dialogue is believable. His characters with accents and the wording they use, is effectively written. I didn’t  feel uncomfortable with this and felt  the moment engaging  and interesting.

It’s very evident that Tejas knows how to plot out his stories and move them along at an entertaining pace using twists and turns and conflicts that build tension.  He shows no plot holes that I can see; and the goals of his MC are met nicely, egged on by action, mystery and suspense.

So what is it about this book that was so difficult for me and needed a second reading? Well, I think it’s the fact that it ended without answering all plot elements for me. I would have liked things to tie up better and maybe character development to have been done a bit differently, but this is not something I would penalize the author for. This is more about Tejas’s style of writing and who am I to criticize style?

I am very excited to read the next book. To that end, I’ll give this book: