Suspense – soniasmusings

The Big Announcement – my book ‘Deal Of Death’ is live on Amazon

In the blog posts that I wrote in October, I spoke about a series of my Favorite Indian Detectives. It also had my creation, the female sleuth Raya Ray who made her debut with the Thriller ‘Deal of Death’. Two months later, it gives me immense pleasure to announce that Deal of Death has recently got me the ‘Literoma Rising Star Award 2019’ for the Best Debut Author. I couldn’t have asked for a better time to declare that the book, which has held a consistent rating of 4.59 on Goodreads is finally live on Amazon. The pricing is just Rs.99. I can assure you that it has the potential to be your perfect weekend read or a Christmas/New Year gift for anyone who loves reading.

Get a copy of the book here.

Literoma Rising Star Award 2019 for Best Debut Author

Santa has been kind to me this year and I hope I can count on my readers for the same support. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in advance.

Sharing the blurb of the book here –

Munshiganj is a quaint town with a rich historical background. Its 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 that she delivered a stillborn child. 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. Soon after, Raya chances upon a secret safeguarded for ages inside the temple. With the help of a local rickshaw puller Habul, she 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 is what they appear to be.

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.

Continue reading “Favorite Indian Detectives – Niki Marwah by Swati Kaushal”

Favorite Indian Detectives – Janardan Maity by Bhaskar Chattopadhyay

Who –

Janardan Maity

Creator –

Bhaskar Chattopadhyay

Novels in the series –

Penumbra

Here falls the shadow

The Disappearance of Sally Sequeira

About the Detective –

Janardan Maity, like Byomkesh Bakshi (by Saradindu Bandopadhyay) is not quite fond of the word detective attached to his name. Prakash Ray, an out-of-luck journalist, who is also the narrator of Maity’s adventures, has a chance encounter with this unusually intelligent and observant man at the birthday party of Ray’s uncle, Rajendra Mukherjee. Mukherjee introduces Maity as one of his closest friends who has never lost a game of chess. After the host and his second wife get murdered, all the guests gathered for the birthday party of the host turn out to be suspects in the eyes of the police. It is Maity and his logical reasoning that helps solve this mystery putting the murderer behind the bars. The climax of the novel brings back memories of Satyajit Ray’s Feluda who was also in the habit of assimilating all the parties involved in a case before revealing the truth and the identity of the killer.

Continue reading “Favorite Indian Detectives – Janardan Maity by Bhaskar Chattopadhyay”

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

Continue reading “Favorite Indian Detectives – Byomkesh Bakshi by Saradindu Bandopadhyay”

A new beginning at the seashore

Continued from the previous part here.

The TV channels had been abuzz with Industrialist Ajay Raj’s life imprisonment term. The CBI investigation had revealed a Bank locker in the name of his deceased second wife Nita containing shocking details of Ajay’s illegal dealings. He was arrested with charges of murder of Nita.

Tia sat on the cane chair sipping wine. The gorgeous view of the sea made her nostalgic.

Death in the lap of the sea — *Photo prompt – copyright@soniasmusings*

“Lawyer Misra has sent across the papers. You’re now the legal owner of your mother’s empire.”

Tia smiled at the lady with gratitude.

Ajay had killed Anu for her property. However, Anu had outsmarted Ajay by naming the then eight-year-old Tia as the official heir to her property. If anything happened to Tia until she turned eighteen, the property was to be handed over to a trust.

Except Anu and lawyer Misra, only Anu’s best friend Nita had known about this will. Nita had stepped in to protect Tia by marrying Ajay.

Tia had turned eighteen last month. Knowing that Ajay had been planning to get rid of her next, Nita and Tia had devised a plan of faking Nita’s death. It had not only saved Tia but together they had managed to avenge Anu’s murder.

(199 words)

This is the 11th post written as part of the #MyfriendAlexa campaign as per my theme ‘Shades of Perception’. This is a sequel of the 10th post that can be read here. Link to the remaining nine posts is here.

For this challenge, I am using four photos as prompts to weave two flash fiction stories and one real story behind the picture. This is my second picture prompt.

I am taking my Alexa rank to the next level with Blogchatter

They coexist away from the crowd

Jane opened the door with her key. As she walked towards the sitting room, she heard sounds from John’s room. That idiot had again brought a girl home. Jane turned on the television to the maximum volume. Soon John came out of the room in a disheveled state with the fair and a voluptuous lass trailing behind him.

“Hey, didn’t hear you open the door. Meet my girlfriend Sandra. She is my colleague at the departmental store. Sandra, that’s my twin sister Jane.” Sandra gave a warm smile. Jane nodded curtly.

After John bade goodbye to Sandra, Jane asked, “It’s not even two months that we have moved here and you are already back to your philandering ways. I am really tired of this whole mess.”

“I like Sandra. I am hoping to make this work.” John assured Jane.

“I’ve heard this before. We have managed to escape twice but we might not be lucky the third time. Stop getting emotionally involved in relationships.” Jane was fuming. John shuddered at the recollection of the past incidents but he knew his heart was sold out to Sandra.

They coexist away from the crowd.png — *They coexist away from the crowd*

Continue reading “They coexist away from the crowd”

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.