But that was my problem - at every turn of the page I wanted to go back and re-read the lush descriptions of Indian culture and daily life, the marvelous character sketches, the intriguing settings at once familiar and foreign. 'It's almost unfair to describe Damyanti Biswas's The Blue Bar as a page-turner - which, believe me, it is. 'A hard-hitting tale full of twists, drama, murder, and mystery that kept me riveted to the very last word and set in a world you think you know, but have no idea.' - Yasmin Angoe 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? 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. 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. 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. The setup was simple: wear a blue-sequined saree, enter a crowded railway station, and escape from view in less than three minutes. So when a client offered her a life-changing payout to indulge a harmless, if odd, fantasy, she accepted. After years of dancing in Mumbai’s bars, Tara Mondal was desperate for a new start. 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.

The Blue Bar by Damyanti Biswas