This is my second book review for BlogAdda after the hugely successful The Krishna Key by Ashwin Sanghi. I finished the book in two days flat during a working week.
The Bankster starts off on an interesting premise. A man – Joseph Braganza – is about to obtain diamonds in exchange for arms at a remote location in Angola, South Africa. From there, the story moves to Devikulam, a place near Thekkady, Kerala, where Krishna Menon and his wife Sulochana run a home-stay. Finally, we enter the Head Office of Greater Boston Global Bank at Mumbai; where we are introduced to its myriad characters – Vikram, Tanuja , Nikhil, Anand, Harshita, Zinaida, Pranesh, Raymond, etc.
The story keeps moving from Kerala to Mumbai to Israel to Vienna. The best part about the book is the fact that the author is an ex-banker and, thus, is able to lend certain credibility to the entire banking and branch banking working set-up. Right from the very basic operations of opening an account to the very complicated compliance audits and how management handles the same, Ravi explains each of them in great detail.
With his words, he paints a realistic picture of the branch working and we are transported to an actual branch and can imagine the events happening right in front of our eyes.
What starts off as an innocuous task of opening a current account which is one of the basic operations in any bank soon takes on a dangerous overtone. Without revealing too much, I shall only say that the book links together such seemingly unrelated topics as blood diamonds, nuclear power plant and a current account opened at one of the bank’s branches which attract the attention of the Compliance team of the bank due to large value transactions. However, the alerts raised by Compliance are muted by Management, leading Raymond (the Compliance Head) to retort, “Why does business always take priority over compliance?”
One of the big surprises, for me personally, was the fact that our very own Cafe Coffee Day played a big part in the book, eventually helping to reveal the culprits. The surprise, however, is that the CCD was not located anywhere in India but at Vienna. Harshita, along with her husband Siddhartha, while on a personal vacation to Vienna, come across certain clues while sipping coffee at CCD, which play an instrumental part in cracking the entire case.
To crack the case, Karan Panjabi and his protégé Kavya are entrusted the seemingly impossible task of cracking open the entire case in three days flat. And, that too, without attracting the attention of anybody in the Head Office. How they go about doing that piecing the various clues strewn all over the place forms the climax of the book.
The book is an absolute financial thriller and a page-turner for sure. Ravi’s lucid writing style and his prose peppered with various banking phrases make the read even more enjoyable. The various twists and turns in the book take you on a roller-coaster ride and, at the end, you are literally left stunned and shocked at the revelation.
Pick up The Bankster immediately and read it when you can. You won’t regret it! It will open your eyes to the ways and means of the banking brigade; a community in which we place our immense trust. Personally, for me, the book was an even gripping read because I work in a private sector bank and can relate to the various trials and tribulations faced by the various characters in the book!
All in all, an excellent book by the author whom The Wall Street Journal calls the John Grisham of banking!!!!!
This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com . Participate now to get free books!
1 comment:
Ravi Subramanian has got an expertise to connect to his readers, create a magnetic theme and get his readers absorbed deep into each page of his thriller. The Bankster is as absorbing as his earlier four thrillers. He drives his story quite exhaustively and beautifully with full command on the subject and clarity in concept. That probably has come due to Author's extensive experience in banking sector for years. It seems for all those years of his career in banking, he drank and ate all the core processes of banking so well and hence has been able to bring out such a fantastic piece of work.
This is his first work that I have read and decided to review, such was the charismatic story of BANKSTER. Karan Panjabi, who enters into the story of The Bankster quite late but has been characterized in a very strong manner, probably is the replica of Ravi Subramanian himself in real life, so sharp and quick in resolving a series of murders mystery. Not all murders happen in same manner, neither happened in the same place of country. But there was a deep connect in all serial killings that happened in various countries and that is where the expertise of Karan Panjabi comes into picture who gets hardly 48 hours to resolve this case. Author takes you to various cities around the globe - Angola, Vienna, Mumbai and Devikulam to get you acquainted with various characters of the story and get you engaged in the plot well woven.
Basically, the story is about a multinational bank that is doing quite well in terms of business in its various branches all across India after entering the country. Greater Boston Global Bank or GB2 is operative in all major cities of India and has its country headquarter in one of its branches in Mumbai. GB2 in quite professional in its approach and focuses on hiring best of the breed available in market. It boasts of best practices in HR, Operations, Marketing, Financing and Sales. Somehow among all good things there is a chain of wrong people who are spoiling the show by having connections with high level of international mafia/ gang and thus do not hesitate in getting down to any level of wrongdoing. These wrongdoing culprits are not only weakening the roots of GB2 bank but also getting involved into some extreme crimes.
This interesting story hints on quite a few guys as culprits in the network but who turn out to be innocent and otherwise. Overall it is quite neatly woven and engrossing read that will keep you hooked throughout
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