About the
author:
Aritri Gupta,
25, was born into a family of arts and culture, in West Bengal, India. A
consultant working with Bristlecone, Mahindra, writing has always been her
passion and something she pursued with diligence. She loves observing the
candid shades of life through the lens of her creativity. Though an engineering
degree in Metallurgy and an MBA from one of the top schools in India sounds
otherwise, her alter ego is one with the creative hues of art and culture.
Reading, dance, music and painting are her other interests.
Life, with all its mysteries, and people have always been her inspiration to write, and that's what her stories essentially comprise of - emotions!
Life, with all its mysteries, and people have always been her inspiration to write, and that's what her stories essentially comprise of - emotions!
About The
Runaway:
I wanted to
really dislike this book, because the author committed so many of my most hated
sins. Tense jumping around. Overusing the thesaurus. Plonking a word in there
‘cause it looked fancy, with the rest of the sentence screaming blue murder at
it. Two dimensional characters. Settings and words that don’t agree (a sheriff?
In Scotland?)
But the truth is
that I think Gupta has the makings of a fantastic novel here. The story is
fascinating. A serial killer on the loose, each grisly murder bringing him
closer to the person who he has obsessed about for years. I love this premise,
and I think so much more could be done with it. Gupta should heighten the
mystery, give us more time to work out for ourselves what the link between the
victims is.
The
law-enforcement throughout the book is frustratingly useless. Everyone knows
who the killer is. He still hangs out in the same places he always has.
Everyone knows who he’s after. And we know where she hangs out too. So why
can’t they catch the damn guy? I realise, from the author’s point of view, that
he needs to remain on the loose, but with a more intelligent police force the
killer would have to have been more intelligent also, and this would make for a
much more frightening villain. As it was I found him a little ho-hum. He was
definitely evil - just not as clever and calculating as I’d have liked.
Gupta had many
interesting back-stories, which filled out the novel very well. However,
although she gave her characters each a past, somehow this wasn’t enough to
push them forward into 3D. I wonder if it was because she jumped so quickly
from one flashback to another. I was often reeling with the speed of it, trying
to catch up on where we were up to, who had been killed, and whether the
murderer was in prison or out of it.
In short, this
is a wonderful first draft. I enjoyed it immensely. With the right editors I
know it can be teased and reworked into a very enjoyable, grisly thriller. And
I think that the cover is absolutely perfect for the book, it drew me in
immediately. With three books to choose from today, The Runaway was my first
pick - thanks solely to the cover art.
You can find
Aritri Gupta online:
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