"The Missing Queen" calls itself a "speculative thriller". I would prefix "mythological" to make it complete.
Samhita Arni's book is set 10 years post Sita's banishment by Rama. The twist comes with the time landscape. This book is set in a period which feels like 1990s but with a little imagination could very well be any decade post Independence.
This is my first "mythological speculative fiction" and I must say that I am already a fan of the genre.
Samhita obviously has a great command over epic retelling, as her earlier titles indicate. In "The Missing Queen" she raises a host of questions, relevant for modern society against the Ramanyana backdrop. This is her real success, as I always felt Ramayana was a little too moral and too correct a narrative to be made relevant for Kaliyug in comparison to the Mahabharata.
This book shattered that belief for me and gave me an exciting peek into the possibilities Ramayana also has in store. If you belong to the section that gets offended by "Ramanujam's - 300 Ramayanas" kind of essays then this one isn't for you.
I totally loved it.
Rating : 4 / 5
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