Red Bride’s Noose by Alexandra Swistak
Being a girl in a Sikh family can be a real killer.
Camille Hayer should be preparing for a job interview—not ordered to pack her bags for a
cousin’s wedding in rural Orissa. India is the last place on earth she would go to willingly; it’s where her sister disappeared thirteen years ago.
On arrival, Camille’s bag is brutally snatched and her family is more concerned about catching a train. No ticket, no passport, and adapting to third world conditions is the least of her worries when a body is found in the sugar cane stalks.
Without forensic specialists, Inspector Chandra Bhan accepts the monumental task of finding a calculating killer. In the midst of a poisonous agenda, Camille breaks the ban of silence about Samara and a gruesome truth leads her to question everything she knew about her family.
Against this backdrop, Chandra grapples for a motive, but this is a crazy marriage obsessed society and the murder of a stranger is hardly a worthy curiosity. While she treads carefully through ancient rituals, scorching daylight blurs into the night and nothing is as it seems. A second body is discovered, sinister lies unfold and Camille’s father becomes prime suspect.
Then Camille makes a connection, but is she too late to escape the red bride’s noose?
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About the author:
She has degrees in education and art history, specializing in Early Renaissance paintings. A dream job move to Asia triggered a career change by the time she returned to Canada. She brings art, travel and an interest in the supernatural to her writing.
What inspired you to write your book?
I have not found many books about women from other cultures who manage to turn oppression and violence into opportunity. So I chose to write about a very closed culture and explore a different kind of outcome for Camille.
Here is a short sample from the book:
Grandmother said, “There is absolutely no such thing as a Sikh homosexual, transsexual, pedophile, or serial killer. Sikhs are advanced and these are low-class things. I would know; I was born in the Punjab!”
“You are so lucky to have been born to us because we are an extremely intellectual family, Camille. You could have been stuck with an ugly Sikh name, but you were given a beautiful Western name. We had to be forward-thinking people to give you a nice name that you can carry with pride,” explained Grandmother.
Camille’s nose began to protrude and her lips curled back as her teeth grew large and sharp. Her spine, arms, and legs began to crack, curve, and elongate. She slowly stretched in her new form as ruptured skin quickly healed over reshaped muscles and bones. In her mind, she painlessly morphed into a fierce werewolf. It would have been a cinch to swallow Grandmother in one big mouthful, but the woman’s flesh was decades past its expiration date. Her shriveled old heart was encapsulated in a protective body as hard as petrified wood, which crossed out mauling, dismemberment and strangulation to shut her up. Grandmother was indestructible, but Camille was creative. She thought of impaling the old woman and tossing her corpse on a rocket ship while gently caressing the imaginary thick hair on her right arm. The idea was so delightful that Camille howled with pleasure. A stick, a ship, and bye-bye Granny.
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