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'Behind The Scenes' by Sharmishtha Shenoy ~ Review



BLURB

Fading superstar of the Bengali film industry Ryan Gomez is poisoned to death while shooting for a film in the pretty hill town of Darjeeling. Sheila Dhar, the film’s beautiful female lead with whom Ryan had recently broken his engagement is the chief suspect. Sheila attempts suicide and is shifted to a hospital in Kolkata for treatment. The CID, Kolkata, takes over the investigation and the film crew is allowed to move back to the “City of Joy”.
Though revenge for the broken engagement seems the obvious motive for the murder, there are several others who had reason to wish Ryan dead. Powerful film producer Rustom, the love of whose life ended up becoming Ryan’s first wife. Screenplay writer Allan, who was in danger of being fired from the production house thanks to a public tiff with Ryan. Acclaimed film director Paddy, who was in love with Sheila. Sheila’s mother, Jaya, who was strongly opposed to her marrying Ryan. The family of Ryan’s first wife, who beer a deep grudge against him. There are suspects galore, but the murderer has not reckoned with the tenacity of Vikram Rana.
The book has all the ingredients inherent in a Crime Thriller, a well-spun plot, intriguing clues, some obvious and some not-so-obvious motives, and well-defined characters to name a few. It also shows the inside of the proverbial ugly world of the film industry. The author has also successfully managed to prickle various human emotions like jealousy, lust, love, betrayal etc.
Overall, 'Behind The Scenes' is a nice, quick-paced, well-spun, unputdownable read, and I recommend it highly to all the fans of crime, thriller, and murder mysteries.

MY REVIEW

I have read and reviewed all the three installments in the Vikram Rana series written by Sharmishtha Shenoy, and I must say the author has come a long way in terms of writing skills. If her latest novel, 'Behind The Scenes' is anything to go by, Ms. Shenoy is all set to fill the void in the Indian thriller genre that has been nagging the fans for years now.
The book has all the ingredients inherent in a Crime Thriller, a well-spun plot, intriguing clues, some obvious and some not-so-obvious motives, and well-defined characters to name a few. It also shows the inside of the proverbial ugly world of the film industry. The author has also successfully managed to prickle various human emotions like jealousy, lust, love, betrayal etc.

Overall, 'Behind The Scenes' is a nice, quick-paced, well-spun, unputdownable read, and I recommend it highly to all the fans of crime, thriller, and murder mysteries.

I give 'Behind The Scenes', 5 out of 5 stars.


BOOK LINK



ABOUT THE AUTHOR



Sharmishtha Shenoy is the author of the books 'Vikram Rana Investigates', and 'A Season for Dying'.
Her book 'A Season for Dying' reached #1 in hot new releases. It remained within #10 in bestsellers->kindle ebook > Crime Thriller and Mystery throughout the month of June and July 2017.
She has won the first prize for a short story writing competition by Typotic. Her short stories have been published in efiction magazine and Woman’s era.
She loves writing murder mysteries, the kind of books that she herself likes to read. Her favorite authors are Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie.
She also likes the work of Satyajit Ray – especially the Feluda Series. She was born in Calcutta and has done her post-graduation from University of Reading, Great Britain. She lives in Hyderabad.

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