Khayaal Patel's Blog
May 26, 2020
Murder Mystery or Mythology
Hello,
Not sure there's a lot of people on here but just throwing out a quick question.
Have two potential book ideas in mind;
A Winter Of Illusions
It begins with love, as it often does.
In a fantastical land of myths and legends, of wars and mystery, an old king passes away, and his daughter, Janki of Mithila must renounce her lover, Raghu Ram in order to become queen of her kingdom, and lead her father’s troops to victory against an invading foreign army. But there are darker forces at work, and it’s not long before she falls victim to the plots of those supposedly closest to her with plots fueled by resentment, jealousy and greed. As Janki’s world grows darker and darker, she fights ever more determinedly to maintain a grip on what is rightfully hers. Her life gets even more complicated because of the mixed feelings she has towards the charismatic Ravan, Lord of the Asurs and the King of Lanka, who is wound up in all sorts of power struggles of his own.
As politics and treachery mix with myth and magic, will Janki of Mithila emerge triumphant or will she succumb to the treacherous world of politics and war whose call she's long resisted and uncovering a secret that will change everything.
In a stunning new take on the Ramayana, A Winter of Illusions is the first of a four part series that chronicles the life of Janki of Mithila, placing familiar faces from the legendary myth in a completely new setting where Gods have mortal flaws and mortals have the potential to become Gods
*************************************************************************************
The Zamindar's Ghost
“You must protect my legacy” the specter whispered again. His jaw lay squirming on the floor but his mouth still moved bringing out an eerie sound which was no less than blood curdling.
There were two things that every child in Ooty knew.
The first,
“The Rana Family’s name is only as good as its reputation.”
And the second,
Azad Manor was haunted by the ghost of the zamindar.
Ooty, 1933
The coming of the zamindar always brought in grim tidings.
But for Sharvani Mehra, the return of the zamindar’s son from the dead is an auspicious event. Wrongly presumed dead, Arjun Rana’s return from a bloody coup quelling Indian revolutionaries has put the sleepy town of Ooty in disarray. But not everyone is happy with his return, least of all his wife who is happy in the arms and the bed of her British gardener.
Bogged down by his father, Digvijay Rana’s unexplained suicide, Arjun tries his best to live up to the expectations placed on him as he takes up the mantle of being the next zamindar. But not many want him to succeed.
Certainly Not Alexander Stephan, the British businessman who wants to turn Azad Manor, the zamindars’ ancestral property into a brothel; nor Rai Bahadur, once the zamindar’s aide-de-camp who spent away his life in the service of the Ranas’ only to be forgotten in the end.
But Arjun Rana’s ascension is short-lived, and within days of his arrival, Arjun Rana is murdered. The town doctor believes it to be an accident, the local head constable think’s it’s the work of a spy sent by the revolutionaries to bring down the British East India company, but the townsfolk speak in hushed whispers:
Arjun Rana was killed by the ghost of the zamindar.
Each of them is right in their assumptions and each of them is wrong.
As the bodies begin to pile up, Sharvani Mehra attempts to piece together the clues as she tries and solves a series of brutal murders—all supposedly victims of the zamindar’s ghost returned from the grave to exact revenge. Nail biting and deliciously eerie, the zamindar’s ghost is a classic ghost story and a gripping whodunit rolled into one
**************************************************************************************
Which one would you guys be more interested to read? One or the other, or both? :D
Let me knowKhayaal Patel
Not sure there's a lot of people on here but just throwing out a quick question.
Have two potential book ideas in mind;
A Winter Of Illusions
It begins with love, as it often does.
In a fantastical land of myths and legends, of wars and mystery, an old king passes away, and his daughter, Janki of Mithila must renounce her lover, Raghu Ram in order to become queen of her kingdom, and lead her father’s troops to victory against an invading foreign army. But there are darker forces at work, and it’s not long before she falls victim to the plots of those supposedly closest to her with plots fueled by resentment, jealousy and greed. As Janki’s world grows darker and darker, she fights ever more determinedly to maintain a grip on what is rightfully hers. Her life gets even more complicated because of the mixed feelings she has towards the charismatic Ravan, Lord of the Asurs and the King of Lanka, who is wound up in all sorts of power struggles of his own.
As politics and treachery mix with myth and magic, will Janki of Mithila emerge triumphant or will she succumb to the treacherous world of politics and war whose call she's long resisted and uncovering a secret that will change everything.
In a stunning new take on the Ramayana, A Winter of Illusions is the first of a four part series that chronicles the life of Janki of Mithila, placing familiar faces from the legendary myth in a completely new setting where Gods have mortal flaws and mortals have the potential to become Gods
*************************************************************************************
The Zamindar's Ghost
“You must protect my legacy” the specter whispered again. His jaw lay squirming on the floor but his mouth still moved bringing out an eerie sound which was no less than blood curdling.
There were two things that every child in Ooty knew.
The first,
“The Rana Family’s name is only as good as its reputation.”
And the second,
Azad Manor was haunted by the ghost of the zamindar.
Ooty, 1933
The coming of the zamindar always brought in grim tidings.
But for Sharvani Mehra, the return of the zamindar’s son from the dead is an auspicious event. Wrongly presumed dead, Arjun Rana’s return from a bloody coup quelling Indian revolutionaries has put the sleepy town of Ooty in disarray. But not everyone is happy with his return, least of all his wife who is happy in the arms and the bed of her British gardener.
Bogged down by his father, Digvijay Rana’s unexplained suicide, Arjun tries his best to live up to the expectations placed on him as he takes up the mantle of being the next zamindar. But not many want him to succeed.
Certainly Not Alexander Stephan, the British businessman who wants to turn Azad Manor, the zamindars’ ancestral property into a brothel; nor Rai Bahadur, once the zamindar’s aide-de-camp who spent away his life in the service of the Ranas’ only to be forgotten in the end.
But Arjun Rana’s ascension is short-lived, and within days of his arrival, Arjun Rana is murdered. The town doctor believes it to be an accident, the local head constable think’s it’s the work of a spy sent by the revolutionaries to bring down the British East India company, but the townsfolk speak in hushed whispers:
Arjun Rana was killed by the ghost of the zamindar.
Each of them is right in their assumptions and each of them is wrong.
As the bodies begin to pile up, Sharvani Mehra attempts to piece together the clues as she tries and solves a series of brutal murders—all supposedly victims of the zamindar’s ghost returned from the grave to exact revenge. Nail biting and deliciously eerie, the zamindar’s ghost is a classic ghost story and a gripping whodunit rolled into one
**************************************************************************************
Which one would you guys be more interested to read? One or the other, or both? :D
Let me knowKhayaal Patel
