Book Review | Crime pays for this British-Indian author

As names go, Vinquita Romaine is difficult to pin down geographically. In point of fact this exotic nom de plume belongs to a first-time novelist, whose early childhood and teenage years were spent largely in the cloistered surrounds of traditional and conservative Mylapore in Chennai.

Having moved to the United Kingdom during the late 1970s to pursue advanced studies in medicine, Vinquita Romaine became a nephrologist associated with Britain’s National Health Service. His debut foray as a crime thriller writer has come rather late in life, but not a day too soon.

An extremely crowded category, crime, and one would surmise, frightfully difficult to make a clean strike straight off the bat or hit a home run. That said, Romaine does a sterling job on the book at so many levels: Plot ideation, sustained pace so essential for crime writing, a fecund and lucid writing style and above all, a confident grip on the mores and habits of British suburbia, an intimate knowledge of which contributes to much of the colourful dialogue in the volume.

However, just to give you a glimpse, a trailer if you like, on what Evil at the Core is all about, here is a soupçon of the storyline without, hopefully, ruining it for you. A spoiler alert is surplus to requirements, so here goes nothing.

The protagonist in the novel is an orphan, Quentin Grayling, brought up in England, who has a tinge of south Indian blood in him, but is otherwise as English as any Chelsea FC supporter. Barring a vital reference to his biological Indian father hailing from Madurai who gets trapped in a vile chicanery by his supposed friends in England, and a romantic flashback set in Goa, India plays more of an en passant role in the novel.

It is left to Quentin’s gutted English mother to spill the beans at the end. Our anti-hero’s life takes an ugly turn as he breaks off with his avaricious wife, his hostile environment in England and family betrayal, and flies to New York to get involved in a dangerous, at times seemingly platonic, romance with a victimised woman who faces a life-threatening situation from underworld baddies.

As both jet off to the Far East (via other exotic locales), Quentin’s mysterious past rapidly catches up with him, culminating in finding tear-jerking answers to the mystery of his turbulent life. Oh, and not forgetting a couple of corpses strewn along the way.

You might find Evil at the Core an ideal companion on a train journey. Suggest you take along a companion book as you might finish this riveting tome even before the train chugs out of the platform.

Evil at the Core
By Vinquita Romaine
Troubador
pp. 400