Can You See Me Now?

An excellent and unexpected political thriller! The characters were well drawn and the storyline flowed seamlessly. The mystery kept me guessing until the very end. Highly recommended!

#CanYouSeeMeNow #NetGalley
A must read.
Sabah and Noor, are the most popular girls in their year. One, Alia, is a new arrival from England, who feels her happiness depends on their acceptance.
Before she knows it, Sabah and Noor’s intoxicating world of privilege and intimacy opens up to Alia and, for the first time, after years of neglect from her parents, she feels she is exactly where, and with whom, she belongs.
But with intimacy comes jealousy, and with privilege, resentment, and Alia finds that it only takes one night for her bright new world to shatter around her.
I loved this book from starting to ending.
Thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for giving me an advance copy.

I quite enjoyed Saklecha's debut novel, and diversity in the thriller/mystery genre is so seldom that I was excited to read this, and this was AMAZING!! Trisha's second novel is even better than her first. This an author, whose books I will now keep my eyes open for; an auto-buy.

This story is set in Delhi, India. Alia, the protagonist is 31-years old and running for an election. She's an MP. Her mentor Javed Qureshi has passed away. Qureshi started the political party Alia is a part of. He's also the father of her best friend, Noor, who killed herself at the age of sixteen.
When Alia supports a woman who was gang-raped and killed by the son of elite and powerful men, she becomes a target and her election is at stake - if her secrets come out she has a lot to lose...
Then we have Sabah, who was the third part of the group, Noor and Alia's other best friend. Sabah is now a documentary maker, exploring cold cases. She's stuck and broke, living in London, having escaped her past. When she gets an email and suddenly she realises that perhaps there's more to Noor's suicide...
The story alternates with the past narrative when Alia moved from England to Delhi to live with her grandparents and become the third component in Noor and Sabah's dazzling and somewhat toxic friendship...

This was a gripping read. I loved the voices of the characters, who all well-fleshed out, and the Indian backdrop is refreshing in a market that is dominated by thrillers written by white, middle-class women. Sakhlecha explores topical issues such as the extreme political intolerance brewing in India and rape culture. It's well-plotted, everything comes together and there's a few twists and turns I didn't see coming. A gripping, unputdownable read that is equally page-turning and topical, too.

Having enjoyed Your Truth or Mine, Can You See Me Now? was high on my anticipatory list. This has the simple hook of three friends who meet in high school, and a devastating secret that haunts them years later.
This is narrated from two POVs:
* Alia - is married to a wealthy men. She's worked to be an MP and is now running for an election. The novel opens with the news of the death of her mentor, Javed Qureshi. Qureshi has helped Alia a lot in her career, which is why she feels guilt about the way she treated Noor, his daughter fifteen years ago. Alia has everything going for her, until she decides to use her power for good and support the family Divya, who was gang-raped and later found killed in her hostel. The rapists are sons of powerful men, including a politician who warns Alia to back off or he'll make her life difficult. Alia ignores his threats and suddenly her future is at stake...If anyone digs into her past they'll find secrets that haunts Alia till this day and she's spent time burying...
We also have flashbacks to when Alia first came to India as a 16-year old and attended a prestigious college for the elite and was drawn into this intoxicating world, entering a troubling friendship with the flamboyant Noor and Sabah.
* Sabah - is an award winning documentary maker, but now a few years after her shine is wearing off and she's broke, struggling to find a story. When she gets an email that sheds suspicion on the suicide of Noor, Sabah finds herself travelling back to India and confronting the past she's worked hard to distance from...What is the truth?

I highly enjoyed this. I absolutely loved the setting of contemporary India, which is not stereotyped. It made this a rather refreshing read. The traumatising secret and what Noor goes through reminded me a lot of some awful revenge porn incidents that have taken place in Delhi. This novel felt timely and relevant, whilst also being gripping. I devoured this in a day. Sakhlecha is a refreshing voice in the thriller genre and I can't wait to see what she writes next.

Psychological thrillers about the destructive effects of toxic friendships have commanded their places among contemporary fiction for several years now and I am always amazed at the brilliance of authors who come up with new, intriguing ways of working within these parameters. This psychological thriller manages to do just that by moving its plot to India, and by hinging it on a former friendship between three girls at an exclusive school: popular girls Noor and Sabah and newcomer Alia, who is desperate to make friends.
More than a decade and a half later, Alia has built an admirable life for herself and is now a cabinet minister in the Indian government, but events from the past resurface to threaten both her happiness and her career…
I though the characters were very well-developed, especially Alia, and the plot progressed nicely. As the novel became more and more successful and progressed towards its end, I found myself re-reading pages and pages to look for further hints and clues, but the story still outfoxed me…
Thorough recommended for lovers of psychological thrillers. Pick up this book, you will not be disappointed!
I am grateful to the publishers and NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for this honest and unbiased review.

Wow. This book is an excellently written political thriller with amazing suspense. It gripped me right from the start. The characters are interesting and have depth and the plot flowed perfectly. It was refreshing to have a book based in India which did not conform to stereotypes. I will definitely be recommending this to everyone.