The Kashmir Affair
Sai Sankalap
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2005 iUniverse
ISBN: 0595361161

A terrorist turned actor joins forces with a detective to thwart a plot devised by his former comrades.

A terrorist oversees the destruction of the world's tallest mountain-carved statue of Buddha in Afghanistan's Bamian Valley, & recruits men for his ruthless cause.

In the United States, Bollywood actor Joshua Borendhi, is the target of an early-morning assassination by a lethal terror cell. A former terrorist himself, Joshua extracted himself from the organization against the wishes of the leader, & fled to New York to study acting.

After the botched hit, the terrorists are on the prowl again, & this time their target is the Times Square subway.

The FBI dispatches Joshua & Sergeant McDonald in a frantic race across America, to identify the terrorists, & they match them, step for step, until the final destination: Seattle. Somehow they must stop the war between two countries with a violent history as war clouds loom on the horizon. Can they handle the heat of the Mujahideens, the violent Muslim guerilla warriors, infested in the Kashmir valley? & who is the radical mastermind leading them?

The Kashmir Affair is a unique & timely thriller, with many insights & details about Indian, Pakistani & Afghan cultures few Western writers & readers know about. Beyond being in need of an editor, it is an interesting, if unlikely, read. A good first effort & I'm looking forward to Sai Sankalap's next.

Sai Sankalap, born & raised in India, now lives with his family & works as an analyst/manager in Seattle.
(10/09/05)

Rebecca