Book picks similar to
Dead to Them by Smita Bhattacharya


thrillers
indian-novels
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No Trespassing


Brinda S. Narayan - 2019
    Eager to shrug off her middle-class upbringing, Vedika actively befriends her elite neighbours. Over time, though, she begins to sense that something is affecting her five-year-old son, Sajan. He seems foggy at times, unable to follow simple orders. A few other Fantasia children show similar behavioural oddities. Before his scheduled appointment with a doctor, Sajan dies in a freak accident. Vedika is jolted out of her numbing grief by a shocking revelation: her boy was murdered. Anxious to find out what exactly happened to her son, Vedika starts investigating his death. As she unravels her memories and neighbours’ pasts, she finds sinister links between Fantasia and her own past. Gripping, tense and disquieting No Trespassing is a stunning work of fiction.

Tarikshir: The Awakening


Khayaal Patel - 2018
    While unrest surrounding the sudden death of the king of Devangarh grows, young prince Rudra Pratap Chauhan prepares to ascend the throne.But the kingdom is in turmoil. The Devangarh army is outnumbered and the British forces are closing in. To make matters worse, Rudra discovers the king’s death may not have been accidental after all. The strange appearance and disappearance of a mysterious hooded stranger and a series of ritualistic murders in which the bodies have been drained of blood, spread panic across the realm.As Rudra struggles to manage his new responsibilities and investigate his father’s death, dark secrets will be uncovered that will disrupt life as he knows it.

Magic Square


Salini Vineeth - 2020
    scholar, practically living in her research lab, leading an uneventful life. Amudha’s life takes an adventurous turn, when she finds a puzzle in an old Mathematics book. Surprisingly, the puzzle has nothing to do with Mathematics. Amudha embarks on a journey to solve the enigma. Every twist and turn in her journey is filled with suspense and surprises. The journey challenges and threatens Amudha. Whenever Amudha solves a part of the puzzle, a new one presents itself. Will Amudha solve the puzzle? How far does the rabbit hole go? What awaits her at the end of it? Will Amudha be the same person if she comes out of it? Read on Magic Square for answers.

The Heist Artist


Vish Dhamija - 2019
    From transporting illegal merchandise and stealing cars to breaking safes, he's done it all. But now, in his fortieth year, he's ready to retire. So when Udham Kumar, a crooked politician from Uttar Pradesh, commissions the Captain to track down and steal Poppy Flowers, a Vincent van Gogh's painting that has been smuggled into India after it went missing in a museum in Egypt in 2010, the Captain knows that he's found his last, and biggest case. But the painting is now in possession of a dangerous gangster, and the Captain is being followed by Udham Kumar's ruthless associates, greedy for both money and power. As the odds against him begin to stack up, the Captain realizes that his last heist might not be as easy as he'd imagined.

Spies, Lies & Red Tape: A Spy-Military-Political Fiction Thriller based on the Indian Subcontinent


Amit Bagaria - 2019
    How could their Prime Minister speak to them like that? How does the Constitution of India allow such people, with just 35 seats out of 543 in the Lok Sabha, to become the PM?The Indian PM's aircraft took off from Islamabad Airport at 7:45 am IST and was scheduled to land at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) in New Delhi at 9:10 am IST. When the aircraft started deviating from its scheduled route, there was panic at the IGIA air traffic control tower. By 9:15 am IST, the aircraft was seen heading south, when it became out of range of the radars at IGIA. Had the PM's aircraft been hijacked? Was it headed to Sri Lanka or the Maldives?The defence minister, external affairs minister and the NSA had accompanied the PM to Islamabad. In their absence, the best men to contact the Indian Air Force Chief were the cabinet secretary or the defence secretary. Both men tried to get hold of him, but to no avail. He was not answering his office or mobile phone. They tried the Vice Chief and got no response either. What in hell was going on?By 9:45 am IST, Indian Army soldiers in battle gear began arriving in army trucks at North and South Block, and at various other ministry buildings spread across Lutyens' Delhi. Hundreds of soldiers also arrived at the residences of the union ministers in the 28.7 km2 Lutyens Bungalow Zone.At 9:45 pm Pakistan Time, about five hours after the Indian generals had finished the press conference in New Delhi and about two hours after millions had started demonstrating on roads across fifty-plus Indian cities, Prime Minister Irfan Khan chaired a meeting of Pakistan's National Security Council. A plan of action was framed.

3 and a Half Murders


Salil Desai - 2017
    . . a woman lying dead on her bed, a man hanging from the ceiling fan. A suicide note cum murder confession. And a name . . . Shaunak Sodhi.When the case comes their way, Senior Inspector Saralkar has just been diagnosed with hypertension and PSI Motkar is busy with rehearsals of an amateur play.What appears at first to be a commonplace crime by a debt-ridden, cuckolded husband, who has killed his unfaithful wife and then hung himself, soon begins to unfold as a baffling mystery.As clues point to a seven-year-old unsolved murder in Bangalore and other leads emerge closer home, Saralkar and Motkar find themselves investigating shady secrets, bitter grudges, fishy land deals, carnal desires, the dead woman Anushka Doshi’s sinister obsession with past life regression and her husband’s links to a suspicious, small-time god-man, Rangdev Baba. And then, suddenly, the murderer resurfaces and yet another life is in grave danger . . . Can Saralkar and Motkar get to the bottom of an unimaginably shocking motive and stop the malevolent killer from committing the fourth murder . . .?

Life in the Sunshine: Autobiography of an Unknown Cricketer


T. Sathish - 2019
    They spend most of their time watching and playing the sport they love. They dream of making their living in the sport.When they are not playing the game, they put on their thinking cap and come up with alternate versions of important matches or provide parodic answers to questions that have plagued cricket fans over the years.However, fate intervenes in their idyllic life. On 18th April 1986, Javed Miandad hits Chetan Sharma for a six in Sharjah and leaves their cricket viewing life in tatters. The after-effects of this fateful event, continue to haunt them for many years.Their problems don’t end there. Sat fails to graduate from school level cricket to state level cricket. He is heartbroken by the loss of his dreams and faces a mini identity crisis.How do the boys solve their problems?Will the boys ever recover from that Javed Miandad incident?Will Sat get his mojo back? Come, join the heartwarming ride and find out the answers, as Sat takes you through his nostalgic memories of the sport and narrates his coming of age story, which is deeply influenced by the sport!

For the Sake of Love


Anamika Mishra - 2017
    She works hard and has no time for frivolities like love. After all, being the creative head of a happening travel magazine is no joke. So when she travels to Shimla on an assignment, the last thing on Twisha’s mind is love. But then, life has other plans. On finding a stack of old love letters that speak of an unrequited romance, Twisha is convinced that she must find the man who wrote these letters and help him. Along the way, she meets spoilt rich boy Alex, who is everything she would NOT want in a man. As the two try to reunite the old lovers mentioned in the letters, they are hardly aware that how they feel about love and life is going to change forever…

Kanpur Koofiya pvt Ltd


Richa S. Mukherjee - 2019
    Accustomed to tracking down missing pets and cheating lovers, he is about to have his world change completely when a new case requires him to tail actress Shailaja Kapoor. What seems like a simple request turns into a dramatic dive into her murky past, wading through which is not going to be easy. Or safe. Soon Prachand and his wife, and partner against crime, Vidya, fall under the glare of the police as Shailaja Kapoor is abducted right before their eyes. Now he must put his skills to the test before they become victims at the end of a dark and dangerous game.

Prisoner of Yakutsk: The Subhash Chandra Bose Mystery Final Chapter


Shreyas Bhave - 2019
    Or so it seems.• In 1947, Mr Mrs Singh, an illustrious army couple, both veterans of the Indian National Army, are last seen in Delhi, and then never again.• In 1949, the plane carrying the first deputy Prime Minister of India, Sardar Vallabhai Patel, mysteriously disappears for seven hours.• In 2012, following the fall of WikiLeaks, a female hacker of the notorious X group is on the run as most wanted by everyone from Interpol to the KGB• In 2015, the millionaire CEO of a Fortune 500 company suddenly resigns and vanishes from the public eye.A set of seemingly unconnected disappearances emerge to be woven into a single fabric as the answer to one leads to another… In this riveting narrative, bestselling author Shreyas Bhave, takes the reader on a thrilling adventure to solve the greatest mystery the Indian nation has known.

Heartquake


K. Vijayakarthikeyan - 2019
    The video of Vikram asking the minister some highly embarrassing questions in front of a packed auditorium goes viral.Instead of having Vikram suspended from service, a vengeful RPR unleashes violence on the officer’s family, and to continue the torture, RPR gets Vikram posted as the sub-divisional magistrate in Laxmipur—the politician’s backyard.As soon as Vikram joins duty, RPR resumes his vengeance. However, a new drama unfolds when a large number of people start dying of heart attacks across Laxmipur. As Vikram tries to unravel these mysterious deaths with the help of Veda, a cardiologist, and Raghu, a police officer, extreme panic grips the city, which soon leads to riots and pandemonium. Vikram is left with no other choice but to risk his life to get to the bottom of this mind-numbing situation.Join Vikram in this fast-paced thriller as he fights to save Laxmipur from HEARTQUAKE

The Rape Trial


Bidisha Ghosal - 2020
    Nearly a decade has passed since Rahul Satyabhagi, heir to the mega Satyabhagi business empire, had raped Avni Rambha, bested her in court, and gone on to become a men’s rights activist, and the who’s-who of Badrid Bay had breathed a sigh of relief that the sordid mess was over. But now a sting operation proves what many, the three friends included, had suspected all along – he’d been lying. Furious that he has been exposed, Rahul plans to sue the media as well as his long-suffering victim. Now, Rhea, Hitaishi and Amruta find themselves at a crossroad - can they carry on doing nothing? DC Virendra Dixit was among those who’d believed that the Rambha rape case had been a ‘false allegation’, but now the sting tape brings him to a case that promises to be a turning point in his career. Just as he thinks he is nearing a resolution, he finds himself at a crossroad of his own. Rhea, Hitaishi and Amruta have carved out a path that has already affected DC Dixit’s, but do their paths cross? Who is the hunter, and who is the hunted? Can a story of hard questions and difficult choices have an easy resolution?

Greed Lust Addiction


Ravi Dabral - 2019
    It leaves the readers wondering: Will the protagonist survive in the midst of the powerful lobbies who have scant regard for human life? Or will he be crushed like a beetle under a booted foot, as everyone predicts? Or will he be able to stand up just with the help of a handful of yogis of the Himalayan ashrams and their spiritual followers? The book talks about Materialism Vs Spiritualism. Materialism is the mantra of the modern generation, whose motto is to ‘eat, drink and be merry’. This philosophy gives rise to ‘greed, lust and addiction’ which are vices within us. As against this, spiritualism believes in having ‘virtues, values and morals’ to live a contented, stress-free and purposeful life.

A Silent Takeover


Sarvananda Chandrashekaraiah - 2020
    He decides to take a sabbatical and disappears off the grid to Chikkamagaluru.Suhaasini, an intern at tabloid Muthodlur Blitz is assigned a difficult task – to track down Raaj and get an exclusive interview. Her research into Raaj’s life uncovers a strange pattern; ill-fate follows every official ex-girlfriend of Raaj–each one either becomes mentally unstable or dies under mysterious circumstances. Determined to solve this mystery, Suhaasini vows to unravel this sinister web, unearthing dark secrets and evil schemes along the way. As she gets closer to the truth, the death of key players and an attack to silence her only drives Suhaasini to keep on digging. Will she succeed? Will the culprit be brought to justice? And what will be the cost of her persistence to expose the truth?

Secret Diary of an Incurable Romantic (Um...and a closet alcoholic)


Chitrangada Mukherjee - 2018
    Have these knots in my stomach. But drinking isn’t an option. Maa is sleeping with me. Baba in Lalitaji’s room. And she on the sofa. Want to step into the toilet, take one swig, and then go directly to sleep. How the hell will Maa know? I mean she’s sleeping like a log. No, no, shouldn’t. What if she wakes up? She’s a light sleeper, after all.11.30 pm: No wine. Or vodka. Terrible, terrible night. When will they go back to Kolkata and let me be?11.32 pm: Chhi . . .Chhi . . . How selfish am I? My parents, one with a heart condition, spent thousands on flight tickets and landed in Chennai. Why? Because they wanted to spend time with their widowed daughter. And what does the daughter want? To sneak into the toilet and take one good swig of wine. Shame on her! Okay, now I’m being over-dramatic.Meet Madhubala Ray a thirty-year-old brand-spanking-new widow in Chennai.She lives with her seventy-year-old mostly-silent MIL—whose name she can’t remember, teaches Social Science to bratty teenagers, and suddenly has a life filled with unpredictable men, catty colleagues, a bisexual best friend, and . . . heart-wrenching memories of her late husband.How does she deal with all of that?By baring it all, in her diary. Join this oddball-widow who always keeps it real as she gives an honest account of a young North Indian working woman in Chennai, who tries to survive a tragedy through wine and vodka, her quirky sense of humour, and refuses to give up on love. Despite its oddities. The question is: does she survive and find love, again?Secret Diary of an Incurable Romantic is a story that is brutally honest, funny, romantic and liberating. It’s a slice of life, you wouldn’t want to miss.