''The Tenth Riddle'' is the third book by

Sapan Saxena Sapan Saxena (born April 5, 1985) is an Indian author, best known for his novels '' Finders, Keepers'', UNNS-The Captivation and '' The Tenth Riddle'' Early life and education Sapan was born on April 5, 1985 at Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh. His fa ...

. It was released in October 2021 and is published by Locksley Hall. The novel follows murder of erstwhile princess of

Goner, Rajasthan Goner is a village of over 12,000 inhabitants in India. It is situated in Sanganer tehsil of Jaipur district, Rajasthan, south of state capital Jaipur. Geography The village is located at 26.7795°N 75.9123°E, at an altitude of , and its ...

and how her murder is linked to a deep rooted secret in the history of Indian sub-continent. The novel deals with mythological themes, specifically centered around the prime Hindu goddess Adi Parashakti or

Mahadevi Mahadevi ( sa, महादेवी, ), also referred to as Adi Parashakti, Adi Shakti, and Abhaya Shakti, is the supreme goddess in the Shaktism sect of Hinduism. According to this tradition, all Hindu goddesses are considered to be manifesta ...

and her ten forms of

Mahavidya The ''Mahavidya'' ( sa, महाविद्या, , lit. ''Great Wisdoms'') are a group of ten Hindu Tantric goddesses. The 10 Mahavidyas are usually named in the following sequence: Kali, Tara, Tripura Sundari, Bhuvaneshvari, Bhairavi , Ch ...

. The novel was launched in

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and divisio ...

by Kaushal Kishore, Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India. The launch was also attended by Shaista Ambar, President of All India Muslim Women's Personal Law Board In his interview with News Now,

shared that "he has tried to explore the concept of sacred feminism with the context of a murder mystery"

Plot

The book opens six years back from the current day with the murder of erstwhile princess of Goner, Avni Saraswat. In the present day, the lawyer of the royal family reaches out to the

National Commission for Women The National Commission for Women (NCW) is the statutory body of the Government of India, generally concerned with advising the government on all policy matters affecting women. It was established on 31 January 1992 under the provisions of the I ...

which further approach the offices of Intelligence Bureau(India),

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the NCT Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati B ...

. Deputy Director Shoumik Haldar along with bestselling author Ishan Vajpayee and Shakti Sinha,

Member of the Legislative Assembly A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. S ...

Jaipur Jaipur (; Hindi: ''Jayapura''), formerly Jeypore, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. , the city had a population of 3.1 million, making it the tenth most populous city in the country. Jaipur is also known as ...

form a team to crack the case. They travel to Goner and realize the case is much darker and murkier than what they originally anticipated. They come across ten riddles, each based on the ten forms of Mahadevi, called the

and solve them one by one.

Marketing

Because of the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickl ...

induced travel restrictions, marketing of The Tenth Riddle was majorly done in online sphere. Sapan usually has a trend of revealing the title first, then the cover, then the trailer and finally, launch the book. This trend continued with The Tenth Riddle as well. The marketing campaign kickstarted with Press release of the book which was hosted at Cappuccino Blast, Lucknow.

Reception

The Tenth Riddle received mostly positive reviews from critics across major national dailies of India. Within two months of its release, Delhi Wire put The Tenth Riddle in their list of "Top 10 Books You Shouldn’t Miss Reading This November." Claiming it to be a mystery thriller that keeps the readers gripped to the book till the very end, The Pioneer(India) cites The Tenth Riddle to be an interesting concoction of history, mythology, ancient secrets and, a tinge of feminism. In the third month of its release, News Now put The Tenth Riddle in its list of "BOOKS YOU DEFINITELY SHOULDN’T MISS THIS WINTER". On December 16 2021, The Asian Chronicle featured

along with The Tenth Riddle as Sapan claimed "I want to always gift my readers something new and unique to read. A lot of effort goes into the same and it clearly shows in the reviews.". On November 16 2021, The Tenth Riddle was trending on top 3 spots of

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

trends on a national level.` Samata Dey of IndiaCafe24 calls the book "a well-drafted and well-crafted book that is worth a read if you love a thriller with a touch of mythology." Aditi Debnath on the Medium writes "The story had a perfect blend of mythology and thriller. With simple writing, the author roots out with varied ill ancient practices which took place in our country"

References

{{reflist Indian novels Indian English-language novels Hindu mythology in popular culture