Finished reading "The Flour Convoy" by Chaitram Singh.
Singh's award-winning first novel is a political thriller of sorts, set in Guyana around 1980-81. That era was characterized by growing authoritarianism, food and commodity shortages, repression of dissent, rigged elections, etc.
Within this scenario "The Flour Convoy" places the Guyana army, the central character being a West Point-trained captain named Allan Conrad Moore.
While Moore and some other army officers carry out their duties with professionalism, other officers including the Chief of Staff engage in various hustling activities, abusing army equipment and other assets in the process.
The novel explores the inevitable conflict between professional and corrupt soldiers. It runs along a riveting plot and is enriched by the real-life experience of the author as a GDF officer.
Captain Moore is a composite character, but the reader who knows the author's background can detect similarities between Moore and Chaitram Singh's real-life army buddy and fellow West Pointer Conrad Taylor.
For a first novel, Chaitram Singh has excelled as a fiction writer.
I must thank Mrs G for buying this book for me.
