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Sharmishtha Shenoy

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Behind the Scenes: A Vikram Rana Mystery (Vikram Rana Mystery Series) Kindle Edition

by Sharmishtha Shenoy (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.1 281 ratings

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Behind the Scenes...
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 bear a deep grudge against him.
There are suspects galore, but the murderer has not reckoned with the tenacity of Vikram Rana.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0771NXNXX
Publisher ‏ : ‎ ; 1st edition (October 30, 2017)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 30, 2017
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 530 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 250 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1979334188

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4.1 281 ratings

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Sharmishtha Shenoy

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Sharmishtha Shenoy is the author "Murder in the Chowdhury Palace" published by Vishwakarma Publications. She is also the author of the Vikram Rana Mystery series. The books that are part of the series are: Vikram Rana Investigates, A Season for Dying, Behind the Scenes and Fatal Fallout. Murder in the Chowdhury Palace, A Season for Dying and Behind the Scenes has reached #1 in hot new releases.

Her short stories have been published in reputed magazines. She loves writing murder mysteries, the kind of books that she herself likes to read. Before starting to write, she had been an IT professional and had worked in TCS, Satyam, Infosys, and Microsoft. She is a big foodie and enjoys Biriyani (both Hyderabadi and Awadhi versions) and rasgullas like most Bengalis. She is also a lusty singer of the bathroom singing variety. Though she is happily married to Mr. Shenoy in real life, in her fantasy world she is wedded to her creation, Vikram Rana. You can get to her blog by typing the word “Sharmishtha Rana” into Google. No, seriously, try it. She was born in Calcutta. She is an M Tech from the University of Reading, Great Britain and had received a 100% British Government Scholarship to study there. She lives in Hyderabad.

You can reach her at sharmishtha.shenoy@gmail.com

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4.1 out of 5

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Kumar Garimella

especially the characterization is extremely good. The story goes through various twists keeping the ...

Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2017

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Very interesting story, kept me glued all thru...especially the characterization is extremely good. The story goes through various twists keeping the readers guessing about how the conclusion /climax. The style of writing and narration of the story are very simple and native - which can potentially make readers connect back with their own experiences with the legacy of the cities where the story takes place, for example - names of places, streets, eating joints and even the very description of attires of the characters in the story.
At the time where novels, books and in some sense the current neo literature morphed into fantasy based heroic techie adventures or on contemporary romance, social, religious, faction, biopic route, this book provides a soft and calming experience which is different from the main stream, typically can make readers ruminate an era in the past (probably 70's and 80's) where these type of story telling was prevalent - it is not to say "an old wine in new bottle" rather to say " a new way of story telling with legacy and charm of the past"

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Yalt Stonesmith

An Exotic Murder Mystery

Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2017

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Behind the Scenes, by Sharmishtha Shenoy, is a murder mystery set within the Bengali film industry in which detective Vikram Rana must search for clues and hidden motives in an industry where everyone has something to hide. The novel’s plot goes through several twists and turns that keeps the reader guessing until the very end.

Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2017

A very intriguing whodunit. The writing is excellent. I also recommend the other Vikram Rana mysteries. You will not be disappointed.

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The philanthropic tales of murder and mystery portraying the dark side of the glamour industries.

Reviewed in India on January 14, 2021

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‘Behind the Scenes’ the third in the Vikram Rana series.
The story starts with Vikram Rana the protagonist travels with his wife Veena to Darjeeling and a mysterious murder case catches him up there too. The story is on the investigation of the murder of a Bengali Superstar ‘Ryan’. He is murdered on the last day of the shooting. His ex-fiancee and the movie’s female lead Sheila Dhar is the prime suspect. But there are many ifs & cons to it. The story runs around the Bengali Film Fraternity who’s lead people are somehow and somewhere connected to the murder. The author’s way of penning the Interrogations by Vikram Rana with each of the suspects is extra-ordinary. The way Vikram investigates the case clues by clues and brings the murderer to justice is very catchy.
Sharmistha Mam’s books are meticulously word crafted and impactful. Her flaw of characterizations, selection of words which are impactful yet simple for the reader to stick to the pages and the most brilliant is her story making which holds up to the reader right from the starting of the book till the end. The time you start reading the stories holds you so close that you don’t wanna put them aside till the end. But once you end it you feel it got over so soon and keeps you craving for more and more….

S. J. Hall

Murder in India, and the food is good as well.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 11, 2018

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Wow! What an amazing novel by a writer who counts Agatha Christie as one of her favourites. This follows a similar format where a death occurs and we are immediately misled as to who may or may not have been the murderer. A second murder was almost inevitable.The private detective, with sidekick (a police officer), interview each potential murderer until he calls all of the cast together for a big reveal.
The twists and turns are always a great surprise. The biggest twist was impossible to guess.
I'm sure that readers of Agatha Christie will approve of this novel.
I have particularly enjoyed the location set in India, a country I know very little about, but having read this author's three books, I now know a lot more and would like to visit; but to stay away from the murderers. The consistent food offered through this story sounds most inviting.

Vish Patel

This was quite interesting!

Reviewed in India on January 12, 2018

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This was quite interesting!

*ARC received in exchange for a honest review.*

Behind the scenes is a story of murder of a fading super star-actor Ryan Gomez on a set during a shoot via poisoning and while there where several people present there are 6 main suspects.

Rusty/Rustom: Powerful film producer, the love of whose life ended up becoming Ryan’s first wife.
Allan: Screenplay writer, who was in danger of being fired from the production house thanks to a public tiff with Ryan.
Shiela: Ryan’s current girlfriend, and the main suspect since she handed the cup of tea which was poisoned.
Jaya: Sheila’s mother, who was strongly opposed to her marrying Ryan.
Paddy: Acclaimed film director, who was in love with Sheila.
Family of Ryan’s first wife: Which mainly included his first wifes mother, sister and a house maid.

And there is only one man who can get down and find the culprit: Vikram Rana– renowned Ex-Police Officer and currently a Private investigator.

The plot is quite straight forward. The story takes place in a span of one month. Vikram takes the case and tries to find out what really happens, rather than just going for the obvious suspect and tries to bring justice. All the characters involved had multi layers to them and all had hidden agendas, each equally suspicious to have the murder motive. But as it always is, not everything that looks simple is really that transparent. Ryan was the famed super star but behind the scenes he had done many mistakes in his life which had affected everyone around him. Does that justify his murder, no but it brings to light many underlying issues and instances forward.

The character development was really amendable. On first glance, each suspect has a clear motive for the murder but in a very fine fashion, their stories are brought to the light. The plot twist at the end was very cleverly navigated in the story and did not feel like it happened out of the blue with no actual semblance to the story.

I have said it before many times that I hardly even have 10 Indian authors whose writing styles I enjoy but Sharmistha shenoy’s style was just perfect. No where in the story did it feel like the story became dull or it was going too fast. It kept a perfect pace throughout the story, making the reader get really involved in the mystery.

While the i really liked this story, i did get an inkling as to who was the actual murderer half way in, so the ‘WOW’ factor did not happen to me, when the murderer was revealed. And only and only for that reason this book fell a bit short for me form becoming one of my favorites. I nonetheless really enjoyed this book.

Mr. D. R. Evans

A satisfying read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 29, 2018

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In looking for something a bit different within my favoured genre of crime fiction and with fond memories of a trip to India a few years ago, I decided to give Behind The Scenes by Sharmishtha Shenoy a try. The hero, Vikram Rana is an ex-Kolkata policeman, with a growing reputation as a private investigator. The story is set against the background of the Bengali film industry. When a big star, Dinesh Kumar is poisoned on-set during the final day of filming of his latest project, there appears to be no shortage of suspects. However, police suspicion falls on two individuals who just happen to be known to Vikram’s wife. And so he is drawn in to help find the truth.
Behind The Scenes captures the sights, sounds and flavours of India very well, helped by the fact that Vikram appreciates good food. I also know that the author is a big fan of Agatha Christie and in true Christie fashion, the denouement is played out when Vikram assembles the range of suspects to deliver his findings. With many twists and turns, this was a satisfying read.

Akanksha.Mishra

Connect with me on Instagram - thatslytherinreader

Reviewed in India on November 20, 2018

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Behind the scenes by Sharmishtha Shenoy is the third book in The Vikram Rana series. It's a crime thriller book and I enjoyed reading it. I completed the book in one sitting as it was quite easy to read due to the use of simple language.

Vikram Rana is a Private Investigator who is on holiday with his wife in Darjeeling where he stumbles upon a case. His wife Veena's school friend Shiela who is a famous movie actress is charged with Murder of his Fiancee Ryan who was also the hero of the movie they were working on when he died. Veena convinces her husband of Sheila's innocence and requests him to take her case. Though Vikram takes the case, it is not an open and shut case. Every day he inspects he comes across a new suspect and he continuously fails to prove the innocence of Sheila as all proofs are pointing in her direction and there was no way out for her, or so it seemed until Vikram puts his mind together and solves the case. Now this book was really interesting and the Author has done a great job in maintaining the element of suspense. I was surprised rather shocked when I came to climax and find out who the killer really was. It was a mind-blowing revelation and I honestly didn't anticipate that person to be the killer.

There were many characters in the book but the Author has given each character it's importance and coming of new characters was not confusing at all. There was the mother of Sheila Jayadi, Ryan's ex-wive's sister Olivia, his mother in law, his daughters, Ryan's and Sheila's movie cast and team and each one was suspect in Vikram's eyes. Then how did he manage to find the killer? And was is the mind-blowing twist in the book?

What I don't like in the book -
The narration of the book could have been better. The book seems edited still there were few mistakes which can't be ignored.

This is an entertaining read and you can pick it up if you are looking for a light read to pass time.

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Behind the Scenes: A Vikram Rana Mystery (Vikram Rana Mystery Series) Kindle Edition

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