A woman is brutally murdered. The killer has left behind a message. She will not be the last. He’s just starting off. Three years back, former attorney Siya Rajput wrongly defended a client she thought was innocent. That mistake left a young girl battling for her life. Devastated, she quit practising law.When a woman is found murdered in her own house, the CID knows it is the work of a serial … her own house, the CID knows it is the work of a serial killer. The prime suspect is already in jail, serving his time for murder and multiple abductions. One of the women he had taken sixteen years back was Siya’s mother. And now a lock of her hair is found at the crime scene. Tests on the hair prove she is still alive. She was presumed dead until now. Senior Inspector, Kapil Rathod, has worked on many cases with Siya Rajput. He owes it to her to tell her what the CID found at the crime scene.
Despite catching her mother’s kidnapper, Siya never got to know what happened to her. Now, she has a chance to get her mother back alive but she has to catch a maniac killer before he strikes again. For that, she has to go to the darkest corners of her mind, speak to a psychopath in jail and return to a life whose demons she had tried so hard to get away from.
Fans of Silence of the Lambs, Harry Bosch, Tracy Crosswhite, Tess Gerritsen and LJ Ross will love this spine-tingling Siya Rajput mystery.
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When CID of Pune (India’s 8th biggest metropole, aka Poona) is called for the murder of a young professional woman in one of the affluent area’s of the city, inspector Kapil Rathod notices similarities with the crime scene of a woman that disappeared 16 years earlier. When not only a lock of hair from the kidnapped Naina Rajput is found but also a message in her blood to her daughter Siya Rajput (there’s more to come, say hi to Siya) the old investigation is opened again.
3 years ago, lawyer and private investigator Siya Rajput made a mistake when she defended a murderer she believed to be innocent, who went straight back to killing once he was free. Ever since then, she keeps away from legal affairs. She works now as a teacher in a college and planned to have her legal license expire. Now with this new evidence, her options change. Will she leave this to CID or will she investigate herself? Not only her mother disappeared, but 3 months later, her dad vanished as well. Is there any doubt that she will continue the search for her mother?
Then, 5 years ago, she was elemental in the catch of Kishore Zakkal, the man responsible for the kidnapping of Siya’s mother and 6 other women and a murder in America. He never wanted to disclose if the women he took were still alive or their whereabouts. Now they now that Naina was still alive very recently, at the time her hair was pulled out. So even from his cell, Zakkal has still the reigns in his hand and obviously, he has a ‘student’ or ‘protegee’ that follows the same MO and tactics. However much control Zakkal thinks he has, he cannot pull the strings of someone else as efficiently as his own.
Apart from the names and places, you can hardly tell that this story takes place in India. The author rarely mentions a traditional costume, a song on the radio or other local habits. This could be anywhere in the world. Siya definitely has a weakness for Chinese cuisine, that I can hardly imagine as being the lame version we see over here. If this proves anything it’s that India is not a third world country for a growing part of the population. The poorer areas of the city are mentioned only once as the place where the wife of a murdered inmate lives and are not described. There are few descriptions, apart from the villa where they live, in the book anyway.
The writer is not blind though for the widespread corruption and bribery amongst politicians, lawyers, prison guards, and the police just as well as in other sectors, due to very low wages and greed.
I put questions by the pleasant and easy cooperation from the police with a private detective who’s also family of one of the victims.
I also doubt that the police can go to a prison at night to interrogate a prisoner. I don’t know, maybe it has to do with the climate or so but in Belgium urgent or not, over here prisons close for visitors, lawyers and the police at night.
I like the idea of pet-friendly cafes. But I’m not sure what’s understood as a café in India. Here in Belgium, a café is mainly a pub, similar to the French café-bar-tabac. Or do they mean something like an English café, like a greasy spoon what you see on Eastenders? From the context and the characteristics of Radha herself, I imagine something that we call a tearoom, especially as it’s also a book-café.
The psychology of the criminals, their motivations and the relation between both killers are very meticulously researched and the author paints a gruesome, frightening picture of predators that lurk unnoticed (until it’s too late) amongst us. I must say that in several places Zakkal reminds me of Hannibal Lecter.
This is a well-constructed story with credible and likeable characters. Although Siya is a bit too perfect for my liking. She could do with a few flaws. The book is suspenseful and a thrilling read. You want so much that she finds her mother alive and well.
I received a from the author, this is my review of it