Rise Of The Descendant (Excerpt)

The Journey of Ritesh Dhawan

"You cannot trick a detective. You cannot trust one either."

- Private Detective Ritesh Dhawan

Detectives have always been one of the most intriguing creatures we get as protagonists in our stories. The musty view of crime, the lonesome clouds made by cigarettes, the discreet observations made and the unexpected plot-twists that come in by the commendable sense of reasoning held by just one man! These are the elements that always make crime-readers loyally come back to the genre of Detective Fiction.

If Ritesh Dhawan is not a new character to you, my dear readers, then equating his traits with the aforementioned factors of the very genre would not be really difficult. Or... would it be?

If we have a clear look, Dhawan is not really the silent and visibly focused man we see in the mysteries by Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie. Dhawan, by himself, proposes a new definition of what a detective in literature can be!

PAST AND FEARS

Ritesh Dhawan, a man who had run away from his orphanage due to his fear of getting adopted, only to be further pushed into a darker and more tragic phase of his life. And how so...? We're not really here for spoilers, lovely ones! Dhawan is known to fear two things the most, heights and his past – the years he spent working for an imperial organisation. The memories of his past are what make him tremble often in the times of decision-making, and thus separating him from the general detectives in literature by a fraction of reason.

THE CURSED SHELL

Dhawan was first introduced in The Cursed Shell, where his reasoning abilities and physical strength were heavily flaunted in narration. In The Cursed Shell, he is assigned by a dying Sanskrit Professor to stop a man by flesh and demon by soul from getting hold of a hidden Hindu artifact, the stories of which are kept secret from more than a billion Hindus, and the powers of which can bring destruction to the Gods.

COTTON POPPS

Cotton Popps, plotted much before the events of The Cursed Shell, explored the true dark colours of the detective, encircling him inside the shaded grey, in contrast to the heroic lead he was portrayed as in The Cursed Shell. This short story followed our detective being hired by a foreigner to prove him innocent against the charges lodged on him of having murdered his employee.

RISE OF THE DESCENDANT

The first instalment in The Sooryakantha Trilogy – Rise Of The Descendant (initially titled as The Descendant Of Om), builds up an entirely new world for our discussed detective. Not counting the events of The Cursed Shell in its timeline, this trilogy works much as a reboot to The Cursed Shell, with many characters coming back from the Wattpad novel.

Rise Of The Descendant proposes dive to a darker world than the one featured in The Cursed Shell to the readers. Pulling down deeper into the realms of rituals, prophecies and cults, this novel promises a more mature storytelling.

In this novel, Private Detective Ritesh Dhawan is hired by a man who claims to be a part of the Madaar royal family and is assigned to find the person responsible for the loss of memory of Manisha Madaar.

During his investigation, Dhawan falls into a conspired trap, and soon deduces links of the case with a ruthless killer who goes by the alias, the descendant.

The descendant has set out on a hunt – an event feared the utmost by the royals. Now, Dhawan must race against time to save the royal family as the descendant would stop at nothing until he fulfills a prophecy and avenges his loss.

EPILOGUE

This book would not at all mark the end to this young detective's journey. But instead, it would kick-start it. The deadliest ventures are yet to begin...

Unlike other Ritesh Dhawan stories, this one would not be available on Wattpad.

Rise Of The Descendant is currently available on Amazon India.