The Last Chai: Bringing the Nation to a Halt by Varun T.

Published: October 22nd 2017

Read Date: January 4 2018

Pages: 250

Stars: 5/5

Ajay Kaamte, CBI officer in first book PSYCON is now elevated to director of SPG. His sole duty is to protect PM of India from the assassination attempts by enemy. Ajay is agitated by the last incident of cyanide poisoning attempt on PM during which a man in his team died. He has only one lead to foil any of such further attack, a Muslim boy who tried to poison PM’s favorite beverage, Chai. Truth of the interrogation and attack on PM is concealed from people of India. The oppositions and controversy seekers like Poorvi Acharya (running her own online news channel) are after Ajay and government defaming them with the stories.

Why and who sent boy to poison PM? What’s the plot of enemy? Can Ajay save PM from another attack or will it be PM’s ‘Last Chai’?

The Last Chai is another brilliant work of author in political thriller genre. It’s sequel of PSYCON but definitely can be read as standalone (You can read my review on PSYCON here). Book revolves around Ajay, Poorvi, and mystery behind assassination attempts on PM, set in year 2019. It’s about the controversies, heinous plots of enemy threatening war between nations, money, fame, religious disputes, and of course politics. A story that is much deeper, complicated, and complex than it looks.

In the beginning, Ajay is the usual ruthless officer who is harsh on his fellow team members and won’t allow any kind of mistake in the work. He is dedicated and devoted to his nation and PM. But as story progress he becomes very complex and his action and behavior is questionable. I was dubious about how his picture was portrayed by author and at the same time couldn’t figure out whether to believe it or not. I had the inkling there was something more to it and I’m glad I was right for that.

Poorvi was courageous, bold, influential, and will go to any length in search of truth. She had very bad first impression. I honestly didn’t like her action and the way she extracted information for juicy conspiracy news for her online channel. She was flawed character but definitely remarkable and impressive at the end.

There were many other characters who were related to this mystery, agents, chiefs and people working for nation and PM. I suggest to keep a note of all of them as they were important and of course to not get confused.

I loved the constructive plot, characters, and writing of this book. Author has written this creative plot excellently with all information and keeping in mind of all minute details required for it which showed how well researched the book was. I was impressed by all those details on intelligence agency of India who worked to protect nation and how they operated, how the agents and people worked in those departments, what all sort of things they take care.

Another good thing about the book was some facts that were used in creating plot like the Hashashin, death of Gauri Lankesh, Lal Bahadur Shastri, and Indira Gandhi.

At first, all political jargon and the narration of story through chapter presenting it at different place at the same or different time made me go slow with the story, as I had to keep note of everything to not miss out any details, so many things were going on in very less time frame and second I’m not a person who knows in and out of politics so I had to google few things to get better knowledge.

But as I read more and reached in middle of story, I got better idea of what was going on and at the same time I had a lot of question- Why and who attacked PM, what were the motive behind Ajay’s actions, who are the Hashashins and how they got entry in India undetected, who is silent protector of Poorvi and why she needed protection and many more. The way author answered all this questions was very impressive and brilliant. Suspense was definitely thrilling, I couldn’t figure out a thing till Poorvi’s little adventure in search of truth. This was very important part of the story as it answered all those questions. 

I loved the characters and the way they were portrayed specially poorvi. The least I was expecting was her leading an important role in the book which came as shock to me and I really liked that. Her character development was remarkable and the message was given through this character on not to criticize everything that government do on the basis of half-truth and lead people towards nation building direction. It was awe-inspiring.

I loved the way book ended and how author wrote epilogue under the title of ‘After effects of The Last Chai’ that was unique and something new. Can’t wait to see what thrilling story author will create for the sequel of this book.

Overall, it was mind blowing political thriller in Indian style that anyone would enjoy reading. If you love political thrillers, I suggest go blind for this.

Author: Varun T.

Buy Here: Amazon.in / Amazon.com

*** Note: I received this book from the author, in exchange for an honest review. I’m glad I got a chance to read this book. ***

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Happy Reading! 🙂