‘You Beneath Your Skin’ by Damyanti Biswas is her debut psychological thriller set in Delhi. The story incorporates themes such as violence, drug abuse and broken relationships as well as dysfunctional families and I for one thought it was done sublimely.
Jahtin Bhatt is trapped, in many ways. He is stuck with making everybody happy, his wife, ministers that he covers up for whilst taking dirty money at the same time. Stuck with having to stay friendly with the Union Home Secretary and his family just for his Commissioner father-in-law and all because he is keeping his fingers crossed he will be appointed to his father-in-laws post someday!
Psychotherapist Dr Anjali Morgan juggles her work at a women’s project in inner-city Delhi, with her complicated personal life: her fraught relationship with her teenage son Nikhil, who has autism; her friendship with Maya who runs a small detective agency, and her on-off affair with Maya’s brother, Special Crime Commissioner Jatin. The three of them end up working together on a case involving murders in which slum women are being raped, killed and then their faces being disfigured with acid attacks. We see the three of them being affected in different ways be it opening old wounds or creating new ones.
A dark and definitely thrilling read for me. I enjoyed the twists within the story and all three of the characters jumped out at me. The setting was so well described I could have almost been there with them. I found the story a deep one with many layers to be discovered as it unfolded. I thoroughly enjoyed it. If you like a thriller that has plenty of threads to be woven together this may be one to try.
Thanks to Damyanti Biswas for the copy of the book for my review today.
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