Eden Falls - Ajay Chowdhury

Description

When Aisha’s husband vanishes in plain sight, she is pulled into a nightmare to find him in this race-against-time tech thriller...

'A clever, timely and thrilling page turner' Jo Callaghan
'Outstanding' Abir Mukherjee
'A first-rate thriller' William Shaw
'Pulsating' Vaseem Khan

After the murder of his best friend, newlyweds Adam and Aisha cut their honeymoon short. But just as they are about to board a flight home from Delhi, Adam disappears at the airport – seemingly kidnapped – leaving Aisha stranded without her passport, her phone, or answers.

When the FBI and India’s intelligence agency begin interrogating her, it becomes chillingly clear they know far more about Adam than she ever did. Her only clue is his final, haunting message: I’m sorry.

Thousands of miles away, Sara Wolf, a scientist stuck on a dead-end project at Princeton, receives a message she never expected from her former lover. It contains two words: Help her.

Bound together by suspicion, rivalry, and a man they both love, Aisha and Sara are forced into an uneasy alliance. Decoding Adam’s clues, they follow a trail that leads them across the United States - into a shadow world of weaponised AI, tech billionaires, and a secret no one is meant to find.

Eden Falls is a gripping, high-stakes thriller that spans continents and asks how far we will go - and who we will trust - when the truth can destroy everything.

Review

This is the first book I have read by this well known author. I was at times thrilled and at others baffled by this standalone thriller.

The book begins with a few students seeing a meteorite fall to earth. Seen as a discovery, but then declared a hoax. Fast forward to the airport in Delhi where Adam and his wife are having to cut their honeymoon short due to the murder of his best friend. What happens next is terrifying, her husband goes missing and she is left with no means of ID and cannot even leave the airport to be with her parents as she has no passport.

Once his wife manages to get back to the USA she teams up with his ex girlfriend Sara who is a scientist. It's not the easiest of alliances as you might guess but Adam has emailed Sara to tell her to help his new wife. 

I loved the interactions between the two female characters and their quest to solve the clues that will hopefully save Adam. For me these were the most thrilling parts of the book and real page turners. The science parts left me cold. Far too much language which although realistic bamboozled me. I decided to just read on and not understand. What I did understand was the underlying message of AI seemingly helping people by utter reliance on it,  but then being used to destroy them through others. That part felt very real and was a little prophetic. 

Overall I did like the book, a sort of Indiana Jones meets AI. It's just perfect to be made into a film. I'm giving this book 3 out of 5 stars. My thanks to Netgalley for the ARC to review. The book is published on 23 July 2026.