When I saw the cover of the book and read its title, it grabbed my interest and convinced me for reading. The cover of the book has a soft background with a bottle of spice. The book is a nice murder mystery, which hinges around its three main aspects the canvasser, the fatality and the reason. Then, there are the other two factors, which also play vital role in forming the murder mystery including the suspects and the speed.
The blurb:
A hundred-year-old stage steeped in tradition. Then, there are six contestants in the book, which showcases the story by having the potential to gain the world and everything to lose. The three judges, who stand between these contestants and their dreams. It is October in Shimla. The air is crisp, the mist is rising and the stakes are sky-high as the finalists of India’s No. 1 reality cooking show, Hot Chef, are pitted against each other in a live shoot at the historic Gaiety Theater. The spices are ground, the fires are lit, the knives have been sharpened… Then things start to go horribly wrong. As she picks her way through a maze of testimonies and motives, Shimla’s Superintendent of Police, Niki Marwah, is more determined than ever to get to the bottom of a perplexing mystery–a mystery that this time around is dangerously close to her heart.
The story: It is a story about Hot Chef, India’s No 1 reality cooking show is being shot in Shimla, the first ever shoot with a live audience with six contestants from varied backgrounds and three judges on 14th October, 2012.
The contestants namely Pallavi Aanand, the talented granddaughter of multi-crore Aanand Group of Resorts and Hotels; Leena Dixit, who gave up her seat in an Engineering college to look after her invalid father and siblings; Vicky Gulati, son of doctor parents, a boarding school reprobate, medical –college dropout, self-taught guitarist and amateur chef; Shaqeel Khan, Shaq, had worked his way up in the world, waiting tables in Lucknow’s dhabas to running kitchens at the Gurgaon Taj; Sharon Sen, an avant-garde painter, was the controversial dare-all, bare-all contestant and Dev Nair, son of a family who owned a jewelry store, rejected fifty eight timed in various reality shows. The host of the show is Rajat Tripathi and the judges are Mala Joseph, the winner of the first Hot Chef; Kemaal Kapoor, KK, of Kemaal’s Kebabs and Ashika De, an actress, guest judge for the current episode. SP Niki Marwah gets a call about a poison-gas attack at the Gaiety Theatre and announces that it is a Code Red condition only to find the victim who died, not of gasping venomous gas, but taking in a dose of cyanide. The book has been alienated into three segments and the anonymity moves from Shimla to Madhya Pradesh to Mumbai and then Goa with the contestants.
Read and find out that the victim is Mala Joseph, who died on the stage, is it a suicide or a homicide?
My take:
The story is fast pace, which kept me stuck to the book and I only got relieved when reached its end. Truly a thrilling story with a good level of mystery, which only glued me to it.
A very well-versed book with well-developed characters. The author has done a great job with its research. A must read book, especially if you like thrilling stories.
