Tied To Deceit: Review + Blog Tour

Hello people! How are you? And how are you reading going? I’m suffering for the hot, and I know that I keep repeating myself over and over, and I am sorry, but this thing is slowly killing me, sigh!
Anyway, back on track… today I am here because I am taking part in a blog tour hosted by Shalini on Digital Reads Blog Tours. 

The main protagonist of today post and review is an interesting mystery set in India, and I can tell you I was really curious about it because I don’t read often books set in this Nation and I was eager to try this setting!

On a drizzly August morning, the inhabitants of the hill town of Sanover, Himachal Pradesh, wake up to the shocking news of the murder of the exquisite, secretive, malicious, and thoroughly immoral Devika Singh.

As Superintendent of Police Vishwanath Sharma begins to sift through the hidden secrets of Devika Singh’s life, it becomes evident that everyone who knew her seems to have a clear-cut motive for killing her.

Faced with the investigation of a crime that appears to have as many suspects as there are motives, Vishwanath Sharma probes the sinister web spun around a tangle of lies and deception.

Praise for Tied to Deceit:

“A remarkable whodunit that’s as sharp as it is concise.
Brar enhances her taut murder mystery with an engaging setting that effectively incorporates the local culture. The smart, believable denouement will have readers looking forward to Brar’s next endeavor.”

-Kirkus Reviews

“A literary mystery saga that includes far more depth and psychological and cultural insights than your typical murder mystery’s scenario.”

-D. Donovan, Midwest Book Review

 

A SHORT EXCERPT FROM TIED TO DECEIT:

Dr. Rajinder Bhardwaj, the owner and the head physician at Lifeline Hospital, Sanover, had showered after his brisk morning walk and joined his wife for an early morning tea. Gayatri Bhardwaj sat with her second cup of ginger tea on her favourite old, worn, woven chair on the verandah which overlooked their front garden: a tapestry of blooming carnations, marigolds, roses, and chrysanthemums. She longed for a clear, bright day and the dazzling blue sky of summer.

It was her favourite spot to sit in the mornings; a place from where she could witness the brilliant dawn streaking half of the sky coral; raindrops soaking everything wet during the monsoon; specks of silvery snow falling from the sky during winter. She could take in everything from the serene mountain peaks and the forest to their house—its roof, windowpanes, and the pebbled driveway that snaked its way criss-cross toward the outside big iron gate. She would sit there until Dr. Bhardwaj joined her after his daily ritual of a brisk morning walk.

They had done this for years despite the changing seasons and the changing equation of their marital relationship. They had spent endless mornings of their initial married years there, when their hearts were still giddy with the feeling of young love, and they would talk about everything and nothing. She’d been a bride at barely twenty, young and naive. He’d been ten years her senior, already on the way to establishing himself as a successful physician, the younger son of a landlord aristocratic family with old wealth. He had swept her off her feet then, and was all charm and charisma but then the magic slowly diminished and finally died due to his secret betrayals over time. Thousands of little resentments had replaced the early warmth. But their hearts, although heavy with bitterness and anger at the failed expectations, had gotten used to the solace of each other’s company that often comes with years of living together, and they never stopped performing this morning ritual of their married life.

AUTHOR BIO:

Neena H. Brar lives in Edmonton, Canada with her husband, two children, a highly energetic German Shepherd, and a lifetime collection of her favorite books.
A hermit at heart, she’s a permissive mother, a reluctant housekeeper, a superb cook, and a hard-core reader.

Tied to Deceit is her debut novel.

AUTHOR CONTACT DETAILS:

Website: http://neenabrar.com

Instagram: @bookaddictnwriter

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NeenaHBrar/

BOOK LINKS:

Amazon India: https://www.amazon.in/Tied-Deceit-Neena-H-Brar-ebook/dp/B07CZSVFX7/

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tied-Deceit-Neena-H-Brar-ebook/dp/B07CZSVFX7/

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Tied-Deceit-Neena-H-Brar/dp/1775158039/

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/tied-to-deceit-neena-h-brar/1128485082?ean=9781775158028

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/tied-to-deceit

My Review:

Let me tell you that I was quite intrigued by this book because I love mystery, and I try to read more of them during summertime, (and yep, we are in summer right now, sadly!) and because I was intrigued by the setting. I haven’t read a lot of books set in India, so I was curious. And even if the starting was one of the best ever, I enjoyed the reading.

I like the setting, as I have said, and I liked the writing, even if I think that the author likes the word “shrewd” a little bit too much for my tastes. But the writing is fluid and, even if the starting was quite slow, I enjoyed the story. This book reminded me of The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling. Mind me, they are not alike but it’s the format that is similar: the story is quite slow and we have a lot of characters that are all humans and flawed. I liked the detective, his wife, and Urvashi, and I liked the two women even if they were secondary characters because they love to read, and it was really easy to see myself in both of them. All the other characters were flawed and quite unpleasant.
But I am not complaining, or not so much anyway, because it’s just the way in which this story is told. And it’s the same way that we have in the Rowling’s book. There, too, we have tons of human and unpleasant characters, and that’s why I have compared these two books.

If you want to read a book full of suspense, fast-paced and with a lot of things happening between the pages, this book is not for you. But if you want something that slowly reveals his mysteries thanks to all of his characters well, then this is the book for you. Because we have really a lot of people involved in the investigation. Not all of them are suspects, mind me, but they are people who know something about the victim or about the suspects, and so we learn about their past and their present with a lot of stories and a lot of POVs because you discover a little piece of them in every conversation.

and half!

That’s all for today!
Happy reading!
S.