Book Description
On the dark streets of Mumbai, the paths of a missing dancer, a serial killer, and an inspector with a haunted past converge in an evocative thriller about lost love and murderous obsession.
After years of dancing in Mumbai’s bars, Tara Mondal was desperate for a new start. So when a client offered her a life-changing payout to indulge a harmless, if odd, fantasy, she accepted. The setup was simple: wear a blue-sequined saree, enter a crowded railway station, and escape from view in less than three minutes. It was the last time anyone saw Tara.
Thirteen years later, Tara’s lover, Inspector Arnav Singh Rajput, is still grappling with her disappearance as he faces a horrifying new crisis: on the city’s outskirts, women’s dismembered bodies are being unearthed from shallow graves. Very little links the murders, except a scattering of blue sequins and a decade’s worth of missing persons reports that correspond with major festivals.
Past and present blur as Arnav realizes he’s on the trail of a serial killer and that someone wants his investigation buried at any cost. Could the key to finding Tara and solving these murders be hidden in one of his cold cases? Or will the next body they recover be hers?
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My Book Review
RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars
THE BLUE BAR (Blue Mumbai Thriller Book #1) by Damyanti Biswas is a gritty crime thriller/police procedural which is hopefully the first in a new series set in Mumbai, India, and features Inspector Arnav Rajput.
This thriller pulled me in with a perfectly paced police procedural on the hunt for a serial killer who has been able to kill for two decades without capture. Money, power, fame, government corruption, and police graft have misdirected or eliminated attempts to solve the killings of dance girls in the Mafia controlled Mumbai bar scene. The girls are all found without the same body parts, but the killings are not described in real time.
The story is told in alternating chapters by Inspector Arnav Rajput of the Mumbai Police department and Tara Mondal who was a young bar girl who got away but is back for the offer of a life-changing payment for one week’s work at the re-opening of The Blue Bar. They slept together when they were young and then Tara disappeared without a word. Arnav has never forgotten her and fears every time he discovers a young female’s body that it will be Tara. He shows up for The Blue Bar’s re-opening and is shocked to find Tara there once again. While Arnav has changed and wants Tara back, she is hiding a secret from him. Tara was the one who got away, not just from Arnav, and now that she is back, she once again becomes a target of the serial killer.
I was completely engrossed in this thriller. The characters are fully drawn and believable and even more interesting with the cultural differences. The crime thriller plot was paced perfectly as it continued to gain momentum as it got closer to the climax. I had to change my guess of who I believed was the serial killer several times. The descriptions of the scenery in and around Mumbai were vivid and made me feel like I was there. This was the first book I have read by this author, and it definitely will not be the last.
I highly recommend this crime thriller/police procedural with memorable characters and unique setting.
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About the Author
Damyanti Biswas lives in Singapore, and works with Delhi’s underprivileged children as part of Project Why, a charity that promotes education and social enhancement in underprivileged communities. Her short stories have been published in magazines in the US, UK, and Asia, and she helps edit the Forge Literary Magazine. Her debut crime novel You Beneath Your Skin has been optioned for screen by Endemol Shine, and her next, The Blue Bar, will be published on Jan 1, 2023 by Thomas & Mercer.
Social Media Links
Website: https://www.damyantiwrites.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/damyanti
Twitter: https://twitter.com/damyantig
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5142093.Damyanti_Biswas
