Usually my primary consideration while selecting a book to read is the name of the author. The name of the author gives a lot about the book. Now when you have a book written by Anonymous, it is all for a toss. When I took Scammed: Confessions of a confused accountant to read I was walking on a non comfort zone because it was written by an anonymous person. I hoped it was as interesting as its title. And my verdict is that it delivers. Of course it is not a masterpiece, but an interesting read that will not tax the reader much. Like if you are free for a couple of hours on an afternoon, or you are on a long journey, you can depend on this novel to pass your time.

Scammed is the story of Hitesh, an accountant with very minimal social skills, a boring job with no promotions on sight, ignored by ladies, harassed by his boss and rebuked by parents. When he audits an automobile company, he finds that it is on its way to dogs. The management of the company itself is eating the pies. Hitesh exposes them, embarrassing his boss and delighting the owner of the company, who is a ruffian named Venugopal Reddy. On personal terms, Hitesh gives some suggestions to Reddy regarding the business. Reddy asks him to be the CEO of the sinking ship. Hitesh charges in to start a new venture, Super cabs with the funding from Reddy and his friends. He tastes success due to his hard work and diligence and along the way achieves everything that was eluding him when he was a common accountant. But like all good things, Hitesh’s lucky run also ends abruptly thanks to the enemies he made on the way. Accused in a financial scam and left alone by all whom he thought close to him, he has to escape from the long hands of law.

The story is very contemporary, with all the dirty flow of black money and the problems associated with it, financial scams, and interference of politics in business, manipulation of trade unions for selfish ends and the greed for more profit causing dilution of business ethics. Though Hitesh works hard to make Super cabs number one, the dirty roots of his business causes his fall. And when adversity strikes he realizes who his true friends are. The narration is quite fast and edgy. I finished the whole novel in one sitting of three hours! The parts about auditing, scams and business strategies stands out due to the careful and realistic detailing thanks to the practical experience of the author in the world of finance. Characterization of Hitesh is very realistic, though other minor characters are much like card board cut outs and very predictable. The run of Hitesh and Payal from the law could have been given more importance. It felt like an easy escape. Also the newspaper, TV news snippets gimmick is good at many parts, but repetition takes away the novelty.

I would recommend Scammed as an interesting and quick read, engaging in most of the parts. Try it.