You Beneath Your Skin
In the harsh Delhi Winter, Police Commissioner Jatin Bhatt is feeling the heat as a departmental enquiry looms over his head, while slum women keep turning up dead, their faces disfigured with acid, and stuffed into trash cans. Walking a tightrope between his father-in-law who holds the strings for his promotion in his hands, the government appointed inquiry officer, his disgruntled wife and an almost adult son he is proud of, he decides the only way to take the heat off is to solve the case of the missing women.
He enlists the help of Anjali Morgan, an Indian American woman and a friend of his sister's, almost family. Anjali has an autistic son, Nikhil who might be outgrowing his calming techniques and keeps getting violent inadvertently with his mother. But when Anjali steps into this world of disfigured, dead bodies and intrigues, is she taking on more than she can handle?
A perfect potpourri of thrill, action and drama, rolled into one, this book portrays New Delhi almost like a living breathing character. The political tussles, office intrigues, the poverty, the dark underbelly us depicted in such raw details as to leave you short of breath. The characters are layered with enough backstories to help you connect with them like people, and not just characters between the pages of a book. Jatin, Anjali, Nikhil, Maya, Pawan lived and breathed for me as I turned the pages. The couplets Jatin keeps dropping during conversations was an added charm to this wonderful book.
I thought that Anjali's backstory was just a tad too long as were her surreal thoughts when she lay incapacitated. Deducting .5 marks for that. Otherwise, I would have given this book a solid five.
'Sabke andar daag hote hain… All of us have scars, secrets.' As these words creep inside you with all their sinister drippings, you can't help but wonder who holds what secrets inside as you move, a part of a whole, among the Delhi crowd or any crowd for that matter.
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