The Blue Bar

Written by Damyanti Biswas

Narrated by Sneha Mathan

On the dark streets of Mumbai, the paths of a missing dancer, a serial killer, and an inspector with a haunted past converge in an evocative thriller about lost love and murderous obsession.

After years of dancing in Mumbai’s bars, Tara Mondal was desperate for a new start. So when a client offered her a life-changing payout to indulge a harmless, if odd, fantasy, she accepted. The setup was simple: wear a blue-sequined saree, enter a crowded railway station, and escape from view in less than three minutes. It was the last time anyone saw Tara.

Thirteen years later, Tara’s lover, Inspector Arnav Singh Rajput, is still grappling with her disappearance as he faces a horrifying new crisis: on the city’s outskirts, women’s dismembered bodies are being unearthed from shallow graves. Very little links the murders, except a scattering of blue sequins and a decade’s worth of missing persons reports that correspond with major festivals.

Past and present blur as Arnav realizes he’s on the trail of a serial killer and that someone wants his investigation buried at any cost. Could the key to finding Tara and solving these murders be hidden in one of his cold cases? Or will the next body they recover be hers?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Jan 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9781713668831

Damyanti Biswas

Damyanti Biswas is the author of You Beneath Your Skin and numerous short stories that have been published in magazines and anthologies in the US, the UK, and Asia. She has been shortlisted for Best Small Fictions and Bath Novel Awards and is coeditor of the Forge Literary Magazine. Damyanti is also a supporter of Project WHY, a program that provides quality education to underprivileged children in New Delhi. Apart from being a novelist, Damyanti is an avid reader of true crime, a blogger, and an animal lover. Her ambition has always been to live in a home with more books than any other item, and she continues to work toward that. For more information, visit www.damyantiwrites.com.

Reviews for The Blue Bar

[emily_wai_catan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Inspector Arnav Rajput is called upon to investigate a decapitated and dismembered body that was found near Aksa beach, on the construction site of Taneja Estate Holdings. As the investigation goes on, more bodies of the similar descriptions were discovered, at different locations in Mumbai. Inspector Arnav then realizes he’s looking into some cold cases with a possible serial killer on the loose. It also dawns on him that it has everything to do with his own haunting past! THE BLUE BAR is a taut, gripping, harrowing, and at some points, eerie police procedure thriller that entwined in the complicated web of astounding twists and turns! I was totally mesmerized by Damyanti Biswas’ latest suspense page-turning thriller THE BLUE BAR, from beginning till the end! I am so looking forward to reading the sequel of The Blue Mumbai Thriller series, The Blue Monsoon which is anticipated to be out later this year!

[fernemysteryreader · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

2002. Mumbai, India.Inspector Arnav Singh Rajput’s latest case begins with a ghastly crime scene. Justice must be achieved for the dismembered bodies of women buried in shallow graves. Complicating identification as the heads are missing. The only clue left behind is blue sequins. It is difficult to imagine the sparkle of sequins advancing to a dire ending of atrocious cruelty. What changed?I was captivated by the author’s writing from the 1st line, "Endings are overrated." This is not a horror story but rather a story of complicated life choices and law enforcement that will push past personal emotions to give the utmost care for those taken before their time, for those that became entrapped in spine-chilling situations beyond any danger they could have envisioned or foreseen. The story is well-written, with multiple POVs and settings from dance bar neighborhoods to Bollywood.The characters that step up to ensure this case is solved exhibit through actions, “in life it does not matter how hard you fall, but how promptly you try to rise again.” A gripping and page-turning thriller.

[geauxgetlit · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This one wasn’t for me. I tried reading it and I don’t enjoy not knowing how to pronounce words that I’m reading so I tried the audiobook, which is usually a win. However, the narrator fell short and I was constantly getting lost.

[eyes92c · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Bar girls, blue saris…a dangerous world!A dismembered body found on Madh Island in a disputed protected coastal mangrove forest are to the west of Mumbai opens up a trail of disappred bar girls going back years. Inspector Arnav Singh Rajput is called out to a building site where the workers have just uncovered a torso. Arnav dreads each call out he gets. He fears the body will be Tara, the bar girl he was involved with, who disappeared a decade ago without a trace. The Inspector is ordered to close the case, only he suspects that this is just one of many deaths. He also suspects the undercurrent of corruption is involved. In high places possibly. Confirmed to his mind, when he’s offered a promotion that will take him away from this case.What we have is a whirlwind trip into the killler’s psychological obsessions, his targets referred to as Items, the involvement of high powered mafia type bosses, corrupt officials and parliamentarians, rich landowners, Bollywood stars, and the disappointment of a friend’s malfeasance. Meanwhile the Supreme Court of India has ruled that dance bars can be reopened in Mumbai. In a twist, the former bar dancer Tara, the woman Arnav has never forgotten, the girl he expects to find turning up as a body, has returned to the Blue Bar for a week to choreograph the bar’s dancers. Now Tara’s become a target for the killer—for the second time! Can Arnav protect her? This time he has much more to lose.A gritty account of the world of bar girls, the dark corners of the underbelly of the city, the other side of Bollywood and bright lights, the other Mumbai.A complex novel. It’s easy to become a tad lost. A very rewarding read!A Thomas & Mercer ARC via NetGalley. Many thanks to the author and publisher.