an indie murder mystery for the win!

marked for murder : a vikram rana mystery by sharmistha shenoy

genre: murdery mystery

My 💭:
[5/1/26 1.36 AM] 

I cannot believe that I'm writing this review in the wee hours of this night. But I literally cannot resist the torrent of thoughts pouring out of my mind after finishing this book. Indie books are sooo underrated! Author , I am officially your fan now 🙌🏻

After getting horribly disappointed this week by the Stranger Things ending because of the lack of twists and everything, I have been craving something, a twist so massive that will get me over my Stranger Things disappointment. I thank all the stars of this universe that brought me to this book this very week and finally my mood is rising again 🤩.

Agatha Christie fans and Byomkesh fans, please assemble here and read this book. Such a brilliantly written murder mystery, that will arrest your attention right from the chapter 1 - nope, from the prologue itself. It was a very character driven plot that kept me reevaluating the characters every other chapter. Like seriously, apart from one person, I literally suspected every single character in the book. And even then, all my theories were wrong! Do you understand, CAN you understand how brilliant this story and its twists are that it managed to surpass all my zillions of overthought theories and left me reeling and shell shocked at the end? Mind blowing story!

The best part is that the story is based in my city, so I had an extra share of entertainment reading about the characters visiting the places i visit. And there are a few bengali phrases too. I loved how all the characters had the essence of bengali culture, despite all being modern and from upper socialite family. It made me think that all families have hidden skeleton in their closets, no matter how happy they seem from the outside. There was one particular secret of the victim's family that completely shell shocked me. And then once I digested it, more plainly hidden secrets came out and I kept craving more. The Bond family and their friends - whew! Ah it's always the basic human vices, isn't it?
.
I loved reading this book through and through. Detective Rana reminded a lot of Hercule Poirot in his amazing ways of deduction. It's always the simplest truth. He and his wife and their conversations about the case gave me a deja vu of byomkesh too. Ahh i really enjoyed the author's writing style. Now I am definitely going to read the rest of the Detective rana series asap.

Grateful that this boring Monday turned exciting because of this book! ☕

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