CODE RED: The Red Trilogy

Author: Shantanu Dhar
Publisher: Om Books International
(Rs 195, ISBN: 978-93-83202-29-4)

CODE RED The Red Trilogy by Shantanu Dhar is a suspense thriller intertwined with hope and anxiety, which are treated as two emotions aroused in anticipation of the conclusion – the hope that things will turn out all right for the appropriate characters in the story, and the fear that they may not.

Ardhendu Bose, the vampire, is now a hired mercenary working for the CIA. Damon Broadus, the African- American CIA agent, leads a covert war against vampires, using Ardhendu as a front.

The MI6 and CIA have joined hands to wipe out vampires in a top secret mission called CODE RED. The best scientists of the MI6 have taken over the research of the late Dr. Amitava Bose and they discover that vampires give off an invisible glow, which can be seen only by using heat-seeking satellite imaging technology. Through this, they discover that the vampires of the world are congregating in a hitherto unexplored, part of the Amazon rainforest.

Suspense is a crucial characteristic of the Code Red. It gives the viewer a feeling of pleasurable fascination and excitement mixed with apprehension, anticipation and tension. These develop from unpredictable, mysterious and rousing events during the narrative, which makes the reader think about the outcome of certain actions. The author builds unsureness in order to make those final moments the most memorable. The suspense in the story keeps the person hooked to reading until the climax is reached. The author has been successful in delivering the story with sustained tension, surprise, and a constant sense of impending doom.

– GS Jolly