Crime – soniasmusings

Favorite Indian Detectives – Raya Ray by Sonia Chatterjee

Disclaimer – This bibliophile blogger is also an author and I made my debut with the Detective thriller ‘Deal of Death’ last year. While writing the favorite Indian Detective series, it was quite difficult to choose seven Detectives amidst many that I had read. But the intention was to keep it personal and so I blogged about only those who I had grown to love. This series saw some great responses from authors like Manreet Sodhi Someshwar, Bhaskar Chattopadhyay, and Swati Kaushal. Not to forget, even Anita Nair had liked my tweet about her Detective. But the 8th Detective is a character created from my brain and heart. So how could I not let it be a part of my favorites list! Despite the risk of making this post sound like a bit of self-promotion, I felt that there couldn’t be a better way to make some announcements with respect to the lady sleuth who created quite a furor with her entry.

Who –

Raya Ray

Creator –

Sonia Chatterjee

Novels in the series –

Deal of Death

About the Detective –

Raya Ray, an ex-marketing honcho had been dealing with loss when a chance to help her Banker husband, Krishanu Banerjee, marked her debut as a Private Investigator in Kolkata. Raya had been handling mundane cases until she lands in Munshiganj in response to a call for assistance from the sister of her house-help.

Raya, who is well-aware of her need to get fit to keep up to her professional needs rarely has any second thoughts while ordering pastries and sweets. She is sharp and analytical while cracking mysteries. During the course of the case, she is often found to seek closure of her wounds through the happenings in her clients’ life. In the world of investigation dominated by men around her, Raya is here to smash gender stereotypes chasing chases criminals and solving cases.

Raya’s journey –

I wrote ‘Deal of Death’ as part of the Blogchatter E-book carnival in 2018. It was one of the first books to reach the download limit of 600 on the Blogchatter platform and it continued being in the ‘out of stock’ status until recently. The book opened to rave reviews and the recent review on the blog Vartika’s diary goes to prove how much this novella is popular even today. The Goodreads rating of the book has been at a consistent 4.59 for more than a year now.

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Favorite Indian Detectives – Niki Marwah by Swati Kaushal

Who –

Niki Marwah

Creator –

Swati Kaushal

Novels in the series –

Drop Dead

Lethal Spice

All that Glitters (short story – kindle edition)

About the Detective –

Niki Marwah, as the Superintendent of Police is in charge of maintaining the law and order of Shimla. At 5ft 6inches, this razor-sharp minded investigator loves her stilettos as much as she enjoys chasing down criminals. When she is not dodging marriage proposals from her mother , she finds herself meeting men set up by her best friend Kamini aka Kam who understands how intimidating a woman in uniform can turn out to be for future prospects. When a body is discovered at the Sonargram cable car base, SP Marwah along with her team consisting of Inspector Gupta from the crime branch, the veteran Inspector Pande and the new recruit ASP Shankar Sahay start investigating the death of the 37-year-old Rakesh Mehta aka Rak – President, and CEO of a publishing firm. As the highly competent cop and her team start delving into the details of the death, involved parties start getting exposed and the truth of the events turn out to be different from they are presumed to be. During the course of the investigation, she also runs into Captain Ram Mathur, a close friend of the murdered CEO and despite the development of a budding romance, a sudden discovery of past relationships lands him in the list of suspects. This action-packed thriller takes a reader through multiple twists and turns before revealing the identity of the killer.

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Favorite Indian Detectives – Byomkesh Bakshi by Saradindu Bandopadhyay

Who –

Byomkesh Bakshi

Creator –

Saradindu Bandopadhyay

Novels in the series –

Originally written in Bengali, the stories/novels of Byomkesh were published in the form of a collection titled ‘Byomkesh Samagra’ in 1995. Most of these stories have been translated into English recently. The author’s sudden demise left the last story ‘Bishupal Badh’ in the Byomkesh series incomplete.

About the detective –

Byomkesh was introduced to the literary world as a private investigator on a mission to bust a drug racquet in colonial India. He appeared in disguise under the pseudo-name of Atul Chandra Sen in the novel ‘Satyaneshwi’. The plot was set in 1924-25. This is where he is shown to meet his future housemate, friend, and novelist, Ajit who eventually decides to pen down Byomkesh’s cases in the form of stories. This dhoti-kurta clad resident of Harrison road in Kolkata has his man Friday named Putiram and abhors the term private investigator or detective. Instead, he prefers to call himself as Satyanweshi (the one in search of the truth). Byomkesh belongs to that rare breed of detectives in literature who gets married and starts a family. He meets his future wife Satyaboti during one of the investigations where her brother is considered a suspect. Eventually, they get married and have a kid who’s known to the world as Khokha.

The author and his creation — Saradindu Bandopadhyay and his Byomkesh Bakshi

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Famous Indian Detectives – Vish Puri by Tarquin Hall

Who –

Vish Puri

Creator –

Tarquin Hall

Novels in the series –

The case of the Missing Servant (Vish Puri 1)

The case of the Man Who Died Laughing (Vish Puri 2)

The case of the Deadly Butter Chicken (Vish Puri 3)

The case of the Love Commandoes (Vish Puri 4)

About the detective –

Vishwas Puri, more popular as the 51-year-old Vish Puri is the founder and managing director of Most Private Investigators Ltd. (that goes by the catchline ‘Confidentiality is my Watchword’). A detective based out of Defence colony, Delhi, this Punjabi loves food as much his curious cases. He is often found to devise ways to defy the family physician Dr. Mohan’s cautionary advice related to his high blood pressure and diabetes. His investigation methodology follows the age-old practices of observation and detection using disguise and undercover aliases. He has a unique and funny way of addressing his employees, relatives and close friends. He has a nickname for all like for instance his wife is called Rumpi, his driver, Handbrake; the lazy office-boy, Door Stop; his assistant – the one who takes time to flicker to life, Tubelight; the guy who was the first one to have a flush toilet at his home in his village, Flush and the Nepali woman employee, Facecream. The detective is also referred to as Chubby by his near ones though, for his employees, he prefers to be known as Boss only. A few more interesting characters in Hall’s books are the matriarch in Puri’s family, his mighty Mummyji; his secretary, Elizabeth Rani, and his archrival Hari Kumar.

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Link to download my first e-book ‘Deal of Death’ for free (limited period only)

In my last post, I wrote about my journey of writing my first novella ‘Deal of Death.’ The e-book was finally published on May 22nd by Blogchatter. As a debutante, I had been trying to get my friends and acquaintances interested in this detective thriller through the cover release, trailer release and intermittent posts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. However, nothing could prepare me for the overwhelming response that l have been received for this book so far.

Even before the book was officially launched by Blogchatter on Twitter, there had been close to 80 downloads.

Deal of Death - 80 download — 80 downloads before official launch

Within the next three hours, I had to request the team to restock my book as 182 of the initial stock of 200 had already been downloaded. The stock was increased to 350 soon after.

Deal of Death - 182 download — Day 1 at 182 downloads

With my announcement about the launch on various social media platforms, even the second day garnered huge response. I closed the day at 300 plus downloads with a request to restock again.

Deal of Death - 307 download — 300 plus downloads by second day end

As I enter the fourth day after release today, it is a heartening sight to see 420 downloads.

Deal of Death - 420 download — Present statistics

The e-book is available for free download only for a limited period, so get your copy NOW. Presenting the blurb and the link to download the book –

Blurb –

Munshiganj is a quaint town with a rich historical background. It’s biggest attraction has been a temple and mosque co-existing within the same premises along with the tomb of Nawab Rehamat Khan. Recently though, the peace of this little town has been affected by the paranormal – the temple bell rings by itself daily at midnight.

Raya Ray, an ex-marketing honcho had been dealing with loss when a chance to help her Banker husband, Krishanu, marked her debut as a private investigator. Detective Raya Ray lands in Munshiganj in response to a call for help from Sharmila – the sister of her house- help Sutapa. Sharmila suspects foul play when the doctors at the town hospital tell her she delivered a stillborn child and detective Ray steps in to assist.

Raya steps into a field of landmines after the body of Dr. Sonam Misra from the same hospital is discovered on the deck of a steamer and she chances upon a secret safeguarded for ages inside the temple. With the help of local rickshaw-puller Habul, Raya starts unraveling the mystery, unaware of the danger lurking over her as a pair of blue eyes trail her every move.

As she puts the pieces together, detective Ray realizes that nothing and no one are what they appear to be.

Link to download the book –

https://www.theblogchatter.com/download/deal-of-death-by-sonia-chatterjee/

I would love to hear your thoughts about this book, so feel free to leave your comments here.

Trailer and journey of my first E-Book ‘Deal of Death’

It’s been quite a while that I shared my thoughts on the blog. While April was filled with daily activities owing to the A2Z challenge, May started with a reflection post related to my experience of the challenge. And then the much awaited Blogchatter Ebook carnival was launched. I started working on my blog posts related to ‘A dollop of Bengal’ to make them befit a book. After channeling my efforts on it for almost a week, the outcome of my labor looked incomplete. Bengal has such multiple aspects that the range that my book managed to capture could at best be described as a personal selection. I decided to continue working on it for the next couple of months before bringing it out as a book. And thus I chose to bow out of the carnival.

The deadline for the carnival was initially announced as 13th May. As I saw fellow bloggers confirming their submission 11th onwards, there was a sense of restlessness and unhappiness in me. When I chose to make writing my full-time profession, I had promised never to compromise in my commitment towards the new job. So, 11th evening onwards, I started writing a fiction novella in the genre of Detective thrillers.

Like the saying goes, fortune favors the brave. The last date for submission was extended to 17th May and in six days, my first e-book ‘Deal of Death’ was completed.

As I await the launch of the e-book in less than 24hrs, here’s a trailer giving an idea about the story. The first book for a new author is always very special, but in my case the crazy story of determination behind it makes it a little extra special.

I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback on the video and cover design related to the e-book, so please feel free to leave your comments here.