Zero Day by S. Hussain Zaidi #BookReview

Book Title: Zero Day
Author: S. Hussain Zaidi
Published by: Harper Collins India
Published on: March 14th, 2022
Genre: Thriller

**I received this book as part of Blogchatter Book Review Program. Thank you to  Blogchatter and publisher.

Zero Day starts with Mumbai traffic signals crashing over by a DDoS attack. While the state is in chaos, Shahwaz Ali Mirza, the head of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad, receives an anonymous email claiming it to be a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack and forewarns of more attacks. He quickly puts together a crack team that includes his protege, IG Cybercrime Vikrant Singh, and Major Shaina Verma of the National Security Guard and gets to work.

What follows is a roller-coaster ride! But will the team be successful in saving the city and the country thereby?

I picked up Zero Day because the blurb was intriguing. It was my first brush with cyber terrorism and I was in desperate need of a nail-biting thriller.

🔥🔥🔥“The worst mistakes are made in moments of anger.”

This was a great attempt at a perfect thriller! Let me get straight to the point.

And I have many reasons to back my claim.

The plot is everything! This is a plot-driven story and it starts with a bang. There are many technical terms related to cybercrime and terrorism but they are all explained with ease and finesse without making it overwhelming for the reader. This is solely achieved because the pace set is medium and the writing is fluent, simple, and to the point. Though there are quite a few subplots, they are woven seamlessly and effortlessly. And since the chapters are short and mostly conclude with a cliffhanger, it makes the reader hooked and want to read more.

So much research has gone into the plot and that is commendable. Apart from cyberterrorism and other subplots, I loved how in detail we get to see how the department of Police works.

Let’s talk about the characters now. I especially loved the mentor-protegee Mirza and Vikrant. They were in perfect sync while solving the crime and it was fascinating.

Now to the not-so-good part!

Without giving away the ending, let me simply say, it was underwhelming. While the plot dwelled on the current political situation of the country and we get a detailed insight into the effect of cyberterrorism on civilians, I simply couldn’t fathom the reason behind the climax. I badly want to disclose the ending, but I’m trying to keep the review spoiler-free.

Also, the characters except the mentor-protegee duo seemed one-dimensional. I wish there was more to Maj. Shaina than just a romantic angle. There is more, of course, but her character could’ve been developed more.

In a gist, here’s what you can expect from this book.

💫Cyber-terrorism 💫Action-packed 💫Crisp Narration