Sleeping Dogs by Archana Sarat
Is it better to let sleeping dogs lie? It certainly does make life easier, I suppose. Archana Sarat’s latest thriller titled ‘Sleeping Dogs’ introduces Aarna, a 21-year-old girl who lost her mother, Devika, when she was young. “I have always lived with my mother in my imagination.” Aarna’s words wring the heart especially because she lives with her maternal grandparents in Chennai in a home that has no traces of her mother, not even a photograph. Suddenly she receives a summons from her father, who is living with his second wife. A reluctant Aarna makes her way to Mumbai and almost immediately, gets embroiled in her own investigation of her mother’s suicide. Why does Aarna have horrific nightmares about her mother who died twelve years ago? Even worse, why are there huge gaps in her childhood memories? Why is the girl’s relationship with her father, Yugan, strained? Even as Aarna goes for professional counselling, she strives to connect the dots in her life in a logical fashion. ...