The Bankster by Ravi Subramanian

Another spine chilling thriller from Ravi Subramanian. The book has been a real page-turner right from the beginning when one starts wondering what a diamond business in African countries has got to do with the insiders of banking operations at GB2 bank in India. The title was apt for the story. It is quite evident from this book that large corporations either private or public are most prone to criminal activities through their own insiders which might sometimes go to the extent of huge financial losses to the whole country, as such, in unimaginable ways and means. It is well elicited in this book of how top executive sitting in corporate office of a multi national bank could resort to such financial crimes through a well organized network of criminals who were recruited into the bank very cleverly and later used to help international fraud agencies to fund agitations and protests against good government causes, thus slowing down the economic and social progress of the country in international arena. The reader will get to know various mind boggling technologies that could be used to assist such activities. All goes well until Karan Panjabi, the high profile journo from Times of India intervenes and investigates the death of his friend and ex-colleague along with two other mysterious deaths of employees who accidentally unveiled the scam and people behind the multi-million dollar racket. A very clever turn of events towards the end and a nail-biting climax brings the story to a happy ending when all the gangsters and banksters involved face their justified fate. The story once again brings out the weaknesses of large corporations in tracking the frauds master-minded by the insiders even though the best of the technologies, processes and filters are implemented at all levels. And in this game, it is observed that the author repeatedly highlights the point that most of the times, men use beautiful women, strategically, to keep away from the suspicious scanners (like in his previous books too). A great book to read and the author is undoubtedly the John Grisham of India. My rating is 3.75/5