Review: The Group

Khurram Elahi, The Group (Khurram Elahi Publishing 2023)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/123265969-the-group?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=Pgl2y1m4Fn&rank=1

Everyone thought IT consultant Jagat Singh ‘had it all’. That was until he met the Forex Group, their website cleverly designed to hook the would-be gambler. Now, Jag is paying the financial cost of his wrong decisions.
He’s reeled in by account manager Mark’s offer to ‘double’ his first £5,000 investment ‘for free’, and the perceived promise of easy profits plunges him into addiction.
His English wife Jenny and daughter Bunny are at first a welcome haven away from his troubles, but Jag hasn’t told them. There is a beautiful metaphor for an ethnic Indian well-assimilated to life in Britain—‘blending in like another dot on a William Turner landscape’.
Alarm bells only start to ring when Mark is hesitant about providing him with a monthly statement. By now, Jag has invested £60,000. Mark is even more hesitant about the prospect of ‘withdrawals’.
The first two chapters delve into the backstory of his online gambling (‘investment’) experience, where I would have preferred an Opening with more action or dialogue. The first line of Chapter 3 would have been a great Opener—‘He finally hit send.’
It’s difficult, I think, to write about a protagonist’s interaction with a computer—easier to accomplish, perhaps, in a film, where you can show a visual of the text on the screen.
Finally (Chapter 13), we begin to see some action—Jag enters a Zoom meeting with other scammed investors. His relationship with Jenny is suffering, especially after she opens one of his letters. Technology starts to take over, and the twisty ending is exciting.
Online forex trading really does sound like fun. But The Group warns us about the dangers imbedded in ‘the small print’—nobody reads it, right? Even computer-savvy people like IT consultants can find themselves hoodwinked. The lesson to us all is: do due diligence. If xyz sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Reading this book couldn’t have been better timed for me, as my bank just informed me of ‘fraudulent activity’ on my account.