The Good, the Bad and the Unknown

Book excerpt: While the clock is ticking fast and the city is in a state of shock, how long will it take for Rishi to trace a little girl? Will Rishi be able to give justice to a heartbroken Amol who has lost his married daughter under mysterious circumstances? Where and for what her whole family has vanished from their house one fine night while Radha was away? The truth can often be strange and shocking. Not everyone has the heart to handle it. A collection of short stories, The Good, the Bad and the Unknown takes the reader into the minds of criminals and police officers. Gripping and unputdownable in its storytelling, the collection depicts not only the seedy underbelly of our society but also tries to show what motives people around us and people like us have to take up a life of crime. All the characters in the stories-be it the grandmother who finds a dead body in her house or the farmer whose crops are burnt down or even a petty thief-have layers to their personalities, where truth and fiction can barely be discerned. Each story portrays various shades of human behaviour-guilt, rage, love, greed, vengeance and fear-and offers many versions of the truth; the protagonist(s) and even the readers have to rely on their wits to make sense of this twisted world around them. The Good, the Bad and the Unknown has a universal appeal to it as it reflects the unravelling of the deepest and darkest human emotions through the most unlikely of characters.