Author Name: Susan Oleksiw

Book Title: When Krishna Calls: An Anita Ray Mystery

Book Genre: Amateur sleuth

Release Date: August 17, 2016

Synopsis: In a tropical night, a woman abandons her daughter in the Hotel Delite compound. She is the main suspect in the death of her husband. Indian-American photographer Anita Ray is drawn into the investigation when she finds a strange memory card inside her camera. When Krishna Calls explores the murky and dangerous world of moneylenders. Before mother and child are reunited, Anita learns how far she also will go to protect her loved ones.

Excerpt:  Over the next half hour Nisha worked her way through the brush. She could hear the sounds of the animals at the zoo, some asleep, others restless in their cages. Nisha heard a squeal, a low grumble as one rhino heaved into another, a loud yawn from a lion prowling in a cage, a crack as one creature climbed out onto a weak tree limb. Nisha peered over the stone wall bordering the museum walkway beneath the champaka trees.

Atop the hill, on the steps in front of the Napier Museum, sat a man, his head propped in his hand, elbow resting on his knee. He rose slowly. Another one with nothing to do, she thought, as she kept herself hidden. The northeast monsoon was late. The heat was intensifying. Anyone who could find a place to enjoy the cooler night air was sure to take advantage of it, and the park would be one of the coolest spots in the city. Its many trees and higher elevation and open landscape promised a respite from the heat. Despite the locked gates, the man must have found a way in.

He descended the steps slowly, stopped at a landing, and pulled a cigarette from his shirt pocket. Down he came, one step at a time, rolling the cigarette in his fingers while sauntering in the night air. At the bottom of the steps he placed the cigarette between his lips. He held up a wooden match, snapped it with his fingernail, and watched the stick burst into flame. After admiring it, he drew it toward the cigarette and soon his head was wreathed in smoke.

Nisha lowered herself silently in the dark, careful to keep her sari out of the moonlight lest it find the flecks of fake gold in the border pattern and make them shimmer. She waited for the sound of his footsteps, then reached out for the pallu—her sari end was especially nice beneath the dirt and grime, with embroidered gold flowers. She wanted to hold it close to her, to keep it out of the moonlight. But someone else reached it first.

About the author: Susan Oleksiw writes the Anita Ray series featuring an Indian-American photographer living in South India at her aunt’s tourist hotel. When Krishna Calls (2016) is the fourth entry in the series. Susan also writes the Mellingham series featuring Chief Joe Silva. In Last Call for Justice (2012), Joe confronts a long unsolved crime involving a member of his family. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and numerous anthologies. A member of MWA and the New England chapter of Sisters in Crime, Susan lives and writes outside Boston, Mass. Find out more about Susan on her website.

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