Exploring Mainak Dhar’s Sniper’s Eye on Kindle Unlimited

I found three of the 7even series by Mainak Dhar on Kindle Unlimited and immediately downloaded them. Book 1 is titled Sniper’s Eye. As I read the name Aaditya again, I thought it was a continuation of Maj Aaditya from The 1st Assassin. But no, this is a different Maj Aaditya. Later I read somewhere that Mainak’s son’s name is Aaditya, so the main character is named Aaditya !

Maj Aaditya in this series is a Para commando who has left the Indian Army under not so great circumstances. He is working in a company as a corporate executive and trying to live a normal civilian life. But his past catches up with him when a man is killed in front of him at a mall where Maj Aaditya is out on a date with his colleague Zoya. His instincts and training takes over, and he quickly figures out that a deadly sniper is at work. He also manages to kill the spotter.

While initially Maj Aaditya is hailed as a hero, soon some of his dark past makes its way into the public realm. Ofcourse news anchors, from the comfort of their air-conditioned studios spout wisdom about human rights…. but Maj Aaditya and his brothers in the armed forces know the price they pay to keep the country safe.

Soon, the body count goes up as senior armed forces people are targeted. The sniper with his signature 7.62 mm shell is the dreaded Aman Karzai and his spotter who was killed by Maj Aaditya was his younger brother. Maj Aaditya’s name gets added on the kill list of this sniper and his erstwhile mentor Ravi surfaces to mentor him.

The plot is intriguing, every character is beautifully etched out. The corruption in high places is also brought out and as a hat tip to the author’s father, the famed spy master M K Dhar is brought in as a retired spook. The territory war that happens between Thapa and Phadke is also interesting, till we realise whose side Thapa is in. Phadke and Maj Aaditya become fast friends. Zoya and Maj Aaditya also decide to take their relationship further after a heart-to-heart talk.

Using Maj Aaditya as bait, Thapa wants to get at Aman Karzai, but the plans go wrong, when the Major gets captured. While in captivity, he learns about Project Lotus from a fellow prisoner called Brig Lakshman Sinha. It seems to be the lucrative drug trade and several senior officials from Pakistan and India were part of it. The killings seem to be targeting all those involved in Project Lotus.

While in captivity, Maj Aaditya has a long discussion with Aman Karzai and both figure out that they have been fed misinformation. Aman Karzai was told that the kill list had people who had wiped out his family in a drone strike. But, they both realised that family members of these people were also tortured and killed by some other people.

It’s when Maj Aaditya figures out Aman Karzai’s handler, that the story takes an interesting turn. Aman Karzai, the sniper who was out to kill Maj Aaditya understands that he had been fooled into killing those targets as they had nothing to do with the drone attack on his family. Both he and Maj Aaditya get together and fool Thapa, the mastermind behind all this, into believing that they were dead.

After a few twists and turns in the plot, finally Maj Aaditya manages to be reunited with Zoya. He also eliminates Thapa aka Sai, the mastermind of Project Lotus from India. Zoya and Maj Aaditya get married and get ready to welcome their child. Aman Karzai, the dreaded sniper becomes a friend in the end and Maj Aaditya names his son after him.

Beautiful story and a well told one at that. I love the way an enemy turns into a friend ….

My rating – 5/5. Do read.