• ISBN13: 9789391125158
• Binding: Paperback
• Subject: Creative Writing, Fiction
• Publisher: Niyogi Books
• Publisher Imprint: NiyogiBook
• Publication Date: June 7, 2021
• Pages: 288
• Original Price: 450.0 INR
• Language: English
• Edition: N/A
• Item Weight: 370 grams

TIMES ARE TOUGH FOR SAMSON RYDER, a Melbourne-based, Anglo-Indian private investigator who likes his facts cold and his curries hot. A secret guilt over the death of his sister has left him guarded and closed, costing him his relationship with his girlfriend, his parents and his faith.

When a wealthy Indian industrialist engages him to investigate how his daughter, a rising Bollywood starlet, died on a location shooting in Australia, Samson treats it as easy money. After all, the police had ruled out foul play. He soon comes to realise that this is also his opportunity for redemption, to help a family find the answers to their grief, the answers he couldn’t give to his own parents.

To uncover the truth, Samson goes back to the city of his birth, Mumbai and teams up with Mabel, his interpreter, Godmother and second-best cook in the world. Together, they prise off the glittering mask of Bollywood and unveil an industry where friendships are fickle, affairs are currency, black magic and curses are rampant and hidden dangers lurk all around. Will Sam uncover the truth or will he be the next victim?

Patrick Lyons grew up in a house full of crime; literally. Almost every room had a crime novel lying around, spread-eagled, face down, his mother’s ways of bookmarking. Christie in the bedroom, Rendell in the kitchen and Chandler in the lounge. It was only a matter of time before he picked these books up himself.

Patrick wrote his first crime story at the age of twelve. A school competition. He got an ‘A’. He also got a talking to about the amount of violence in the story. It did not matter that Patrick didn’t win; he was just thrilled with how the writing process seemed to flow. He’s been arrested by crime writing ever since.

Writing about his experience as an Anglo-Indian growing up in Australia during the 1970s and 1980s is a good way for Patrick to explore broader concepts of exclusiveness, racism, identity and duality. These notions subtly pepper his work, bringing grit to his characters. The often-hilarious cultural clashes he witnessed provide plenty of scope for humour, and an opportunity to reflect on the universal desire to belong.

Patrick lives in Melbourne with his family and a pet bearded dragon called Rex. He is never far from a good coffee. www.patricklyonsauthor.com