Book Review: Zero Day

Genre: Thriller/ Crime Fiction

Publisher: Harper Collins India

Total Pages: 224 pages

Author: S. Hussain Zaidi

About the Author:

S. Hussain Zaidi is an Indian author and former investigative journalist. His works include Dongri to Dubai: Six Decades of the Mumbai Mafia, Mafia Queens of Mumbai, Black Friday, My Name is Abu Salem, and Mumbai Avengers.

Zaidi began his career in journalism while working for the newspaper The Asian Age, where he became the Resident Editor. Zaidi later worked for several other periodicals, including The Indian Express, Mid Day, and Mumbai Mirror.

Zaidi has covered the Mumbai mafia for several decades. His 2002 book Black Friday detailed the 1993 Mumbai bombings, an attack comprising 13 explosions that killed 250 people. The book was adapted two years later, in 2004, into a film by Anurag Kashyap also titled Black Friday. In Dongri to Dubai: Six Decades of the Mumbai Mafia, a historical account of the Mumbai mafia, Zaidi conducted an interview with crime boss Dawood Ibrahim, who is suspected of having orchestrated the bombings. The book was adapted into a film, Shootout at Wadala by Sanjay Gupta.

Zaidi is also an associate producer of the HBO documentary Terror in Mumbai, which is based on the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai.

The 2015 Kabir Khan film Phantom starring Saif Ali Khan and Katrina Kaif, is an adaptation of Zaidi’s book Mumbai Avengers, and the screenplay of the film has been written in co-ordination with the author.

Book Cover:

The Cover has VT station and Mumbai traffic in the background and a hooded cyber attacker and some code floating on the cover.

It’s very relevant and clearly gives the insight about the story or plat is about Mumbai and a cyber-attack.

Plot/ Story Line: Zero Day

Mumbai is in a state of chaos. All traffic signals across the entire city have stopped working.

Shahwaz Ali Mirza, head of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad, receives an anonymous email claiming it to be a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. He quickly puts together a crack team that includes his protégé, IG Cybercrime Vikrant Singh, and gets to work trawling the dark web for more information on this mystery attack. However, a move to bring forward the hacker backfires, leading to a second, deadlier attack on Mumbai’s lifeline, the railway system.

It is their first brush with cyberterrorism: a zero-day vulnerability in the Indian government’s system that could bring the country to its knees. Racing against time and investigating a case unlike any other, in Zero Day, Mirza and Vikrant face the most dangerous mission of their lives.

My Take:

Its my pleasure and honor to get to review a book written by S. Hussain Zaidi. He has proven his mettle long ago. when 1 after another his books were converted to scripts and then into blockbuster success. I see the same future for Zero Day too.

What worked for me?

Language is simple and narrative. The plot and characters both get good scope. It has been developed step-by-step manner which keeps the readers glued. It makes reading easy understand and unravel the mystery.

The storyline is action packed and sticks on line always. It is a page turner indeed.

All the lead characters Vikrant, Mirza, Deo know there job well and well-groomed. They have learned from their experiences. And they do not waste time in recognizing the real criminal. And make him fall for the trap they have laid.

What could have been better?

Sometimes a few tough words are used, which may reduce the reading speed for a non-regular English reader.

The ‘F-word’ used quite often, and could have been replaced by other more appropriate words.

This book qualifies for a classic thriller for me.

The Book surely gets a 4+ starts from me as a reviewer and a reader.

Amazon link to buy Zero Day is HERE!!

Thanks to #bookchatter bookreview program by The blogchatter, for bringing this book my way.

If you like reading fiction, you can try reading When strangers meet, here is the review.