Review- The Missing Connection

BY Titiksha Jindal IN B+, General Fiction, Thriller NO COMMENTS YET Ketaki Patwardhan Nirkhi




By Ketaki Patwardhan Nirkhi. Grade: B+

The Missing Connection

“Dr. Neha Dixit, an anaesthetist lives in Mumbai with her loving husband Dr. Ashutosh. While working at the hospital, Neha sees a patient, Susan. Neha has the feeling that she has seen this woman somewhere, a sense of déjà vu. The hazel brown eyes of Susan start haunting her. Neha goes to the hospital to find out who Susan is…only to find her absconding. And thus begins Neha’s cross country hunt to find Susan and to find out who she really is. And during this hunt, she realizes that Susan too is following her.
Who is Susan? Why does she seem familiar? What is her connection to Neha’s nightmares? Why is she following her? Will hypnotic age regression, as suggested by psychiatrist Dr.Ram, help her? As Neha comes closer to finding who Susan really is, she thinks the problem of her nightmares is going to end. What she doesn’t know is that she is close to unraveling a horrific secret burried in the past…”

The story revolves around an anesthetist, Dr. Neha Dixit who lives in Mumbai with her husband Ashutosh. Her life is almost perfect, except for two problems. Neha regularly has nightmares. The same one that she has had since childhood, where she hears screams, sees blood and then someone places a hand over her shoulder. Everyone assumes that these nightmares have something to do with her past, but she cannot recollect any such incidence. The other problem is they are childless, despite all efforts.  Then, one fine day, her life takes an unexpected twist…

While on duty to administer anaesthesia to shock treatment patients, she comes across one such patient by the name Susan Rastogi. The moment she sees her, Neha feels a sense of déjà vu. Probably Susan senses it too since she keeps staring at Neha with her haunting hazel-brown eyes. From that day onwards, her nightmares increase in frequency. She is determined that it has something to do with Susan, thus she goes to the hospital the next day to find out more about this particular patient but is told that Susan has ran away.

Not able to come to peace with the fact that her nightmares and Susan are unrelated, she goes around gathering as much information as she can from all sources that she can come across. Each clue seems like a dead end but Neha is determined to solve this mystery. Gradually, as one clue leads to another, some horrific truths and revelations come to the surface. Among all this, Neha realises that all this while, while she was trying to trace Susan and her past, Susan had been following her.

It’s an interesting, thick plot with multiple threads winding and unwinding as you read. However, the writing is average, and a little proficiency there could have done wonders for this book. For example, describing a scene in a way that it feels like you are actually there and telling every tiny little thing that happened are two different things altogether. But despite these minor annoyances, the pace keeps you engrossed throughout, up to a point that it is almost impossible to put it down.

Another smashing read from the author! Kudos.

About Titiksha Jindal

Titiksha is an eighteen year old who is proud of the fact that she is the only Titiksha Jindal on Facebook. Her love for reading started when she issued Secret Seven in fourth grade on seeing the colorful cover and hasn't looked back since. Reading under the blankets with a torch has led to her poor eyesight, but meeting the love of her life in Harry Potter more than made up for it. She also loves to watch movies at home instead of cinema halls.
Her favourite genres are mystery and fantasy fiction, but she's not a big fan of philosophical books probably because she knows whats good for her and refuses to do so anyway. An aspiring Chartered Accountant, she is also doing B.Com Hons.
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