New Delhi, Dec 2 (IANS): On the dark streets of Mumbai, the paths of a missing dancer, a serial killer, and an inspector with a haunted past converge in Damyanti Biswas's "The Blue Bar" (Thomas & Mercer), 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 in a harmless, if odd, fantasy, she accepted. The setup was simple: Wear a blue-sequined sari, 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 Rajput realises 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 her's?

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's been shortlisted for Best Small Fictions and Bath Novel Awards and is co-editor of the Forge Literary Magazine.

Biswas is also a supporter of Project WHY, a programme that provides quality education to underprivileged children in New Delhi. Apart from being a novelist, she 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.