The Brightest Fell by Nupur Chowdhury.

Put yourself into the near future on a fictional island called Naijan, somewhere in the North Sea. This political thriller is a tale of betrayal and corruption.

I got a shock when I started reading this novel. Right from the first page the reader is thrown into a make believe world. All the locations are fictitious, the country does not exist and there are no cultural or religious clues. There are no geographic references to the real world, everything is generic. But we have a civilisation, a working infrastructure including houses, media, roads and telecommunications. For British readers the place names and character names may be a challenge but simply ignore this as we are not reading aloud. So although we will not recognise names to begin with, bear with it and you will recognise everything else. Politics is the same the world over, featuring lots of lies and dirty work behind the scenes.

I enjoyed reading The Brightest Fell and feel it is a GOOD political thriller. I liked the plot and the political manoeuvring was very engaging. Each character had their own hidden agenda and there was good and bad in each of them. There was lots for the reader to think about, not just in this novel but whether these political struggles could be taking place today in real world politics. Woven into this plot were our current day concerns over corruption, drugs, state control and terrorism. Add to that our daily tide of fake news and lies from all politicians.

I found The Brightest Fell to be an entertaining read that I could relate so easily to. It is similar to watching the Daily Briefing here in the UK as our country struggles with the coronavirus pandemic. Suspicions are aroused as the politicians and scientists compete against each other.

I liked the writing quality that Nupur put into her novel. I found this book very easy to follow and well written. It follows a lovely linear time frame and the pace is steady with no boring bits to tire the reader. She uses American English and gives no clue to her homeland, except for just one word I picked up on, “kulfi” - a traditional Indian ice cream. Nupur deploys a lovely wide vocabulary and has a great range of popular phrases and sayings, for example…

The best lies, after all, had a basis in truth.

Can’t stain a black coat and all that.

...The Brightest Fell was an interesting read for me and it makes the reader question just how representative democracy is for the population it claims to serve. Nupur serves her readers with a solid GOOD read that gets 4 stars from me.

Thanks to the author for giving me a copy of this book on the understanding that I provide an honest review.

The Brightest Fell was written in 2019 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.