Jake Stevens, a CBI officer is pulled out of an investigation of gruesome murders. When his curiosity gets better of him he realises that the case is more than what he had bargained for. He finds secrets about his dead father and a long-kept secret from the world - The Lost Arcanum.
The secret which if revealed will change the course of human understanding of the world and evolution alike. As Jake goes on a treasure hunt bridled with puzzles and cyphers with a mysterious woman, Taneez, he finally uncovers the truth and his worldview is changed forever. The readers’ not so much. Spoiler alert! It was the aliens. That is the secret. That’s all.
‘The Lost Arcanum’ does not dive into the plot properly even a hundred pages into the book. The chase, the deciphers and the hero with a sidekick tropes make you look at the book as a cheap rip off of a Dan Brown novel. The story goes around in circles and so do the characters. It only gives you the illusion of a pacy narration but soon enough you realise that the author is toying with you with convoluted sequences so that you do not notice how dilettante he really is. The final reveal is underwhelming and makes you suspect if it was just some propaganda to discredit the Darwinian Theory.
While the story itself is weak enough to make you bored and annoyed at the same time, the style of writing itself is tedious. If you pick up the book, be prepared to endure multiple adjectives, repetitive dialogues and conversations that feel like they were written for a school play. The editor too did not seem to have put too much effort in the book. Grammar and spellings are often off and roughly done. Perhaps, the editors gave up on the book long before the readers did.
I want to say it’s a poor man’s Dan Brown. Read it and decide if it is an overstatement.
Publisher: Invincible Publishers
Pages: 461
Price: `349