Anita Ray Books In Order

Publication Order of Anita Ray Books

The Anita Ray book series is a wonderful series of mystery, thriller, and suspense novels. It is written by a reputed American writer named Susan Oleksiw. The series is comprised of a total of 6 novels published between 2010 & 2016. Each and every novel of the series features the lead protagonist in the role of a photographer cum amateur sleuth named Anita Ray. Susan has described Anita as a smart girl. She lives in the south Indian state of Kerala, where her aunt owns a tourist hotel. Anita is of the Indian-American origin. Her adventures in Kerala are depicted in the form of various murder mysteries that she solves using her investigative skills and determination.

Through the adventures of Anita Ray, Susan Oleksiw has described life in India and the lesser-known facts about spending time in this cultural land along with all its hardships and difficulties. The characters that play important roles in the books of this series other than Anita Ray include Devi, Aunt Meena, Nisha, Panju, etc. All the characters mentioned in this series by Susan are well developed, especially Anita Ray, who is depicted as an intelligent, likable, and strong protagonist. Even the mysteries described are quite intricate and intriguing. There are a lot of twists and turns in the novels that help to keep the stories move forward and the readers glued to the books till the very end.

An exciting novel of the Anita Ray series written by Susan Oleksiw is entitled ‘When Krishna Calls’. It was published by Five Star Publishing in 2016. The book opens by depicting that a young woman named Nisha leaves her daughter in the compound of Aunt Meena’s Hotel Delite in the night and runs away. Nisha is also one of the employees of Hotel Delite. The next morning, Anita Ray discovers the small girl and recognizes her to be the daughter of Nisha. In order to find out why she abandoned her daughter and left her at the hotel, Anita begins to look for her. However, before she could track down Nisha, the police come to her looking for Nisha. Anita Ray is informed that Nisha is charged as the prime suspect in the murder of her husband and is absconding. Nisha’s husband was stabbed to death and the police suspect that Nisha is the one who stabbed him. Since she is not present to defend herself, the police’s suspicion keeps growing stronger.

Anita Ray doesn’t interfere in the investigation procedure and provides all the assistance to the police to let them do their work. Meanwhile, she prepares for her upcoming photography show in a well-known art gallery. She hopes that the show will get completed smoothly and won’t land her in any form of trouble. However, Anita’s fate appears to conspire against her. As she adjusts her camera to capture one final shot, it stops working. After inspecting the camera, she discovers a small piece of paper inside the battery case that contains a memory card owned by someone else. Anita Ray finds this discovery quite intriguing. She suspects that the memory card might hold some important information related to Nisha and the mysterious case of her husband’s murder.

After inspecting the contents of the memory card, Anita feels the urgent need to find Nisha and clear her name from the murder charge before it is too late. In doing so, Anita delves into the dark world of honor debts and moneylenders. She comes to know about the illegal and cruel network of moneylenders spread across many villages of Kerala. This cruel network thrives on the impoverished farmers. Due to the nearly impossible interest rates and in the desperation to save their family land from being taken over, the farmers are forced to take some harsh steps. One such situation arrives in the life of Nisha, who finds herself in jeopardy. Before her crisis escalates further, Anita Ray comes to her rescue. She collects enough evidence to prove Nisha’s innocence and also helps the police in catching the real culprit. This novel turned out to be an absorbing and complicated one. It is fast paced and filled with intriguing characters. The readers enjoyed it thoroughly and spoke highly about it on various literary platforms.

Another popular book of the series is called ‘For the Love of Parvati’. It was also released by Five Star (ME) publication. The essential characters created for this book include Aunt Meena, Prakash, Anita Ray, Valli, Lalita Amma, Parvati, etc. Susan has set the story in Kerala at the time of the monsoon season. Initially, the novel shows that a man’s life hangs in the balance and he struggles for his survival. While traveling to a relative’s house by car, Aunt Meena and Anita Ray are stopped at a police check-post. They luggage are thoroughly checked by the police. When all this is happening, Anita Ray sees a sharpshooter keeping a watch from a distance. She wonders what is happening and tries to understand the matter. When the two arrive at the home of Lalita Amma, the situation there puzzles her even more. Lalita Amma seems depressed due to a serious situation. Her daughter, Valli, comes to live with her after leaving her husband, whom she had married two years ago. Lalita Amma’s son, Prakash, seems to be facing some trouble in his priest job at a local temple.

Anita Ray shows the intention of helping out each the relatives. But, none of them let her know the problems troubling them. Anita seems bothered by seeing the depressed faced of all the three relatives. The house’s new maid, Parvati, also looks troubled. Anita finds her fearful and secretive. As the story proceeds further, Anita Ray succeeds in getting her hands on the truth and the mystery that connects the problems in the lives all the four people living in Lalita Amma’s home. She also finds a solution to prevent the secrets from impacting the lives of the people she is closely related to. Once again, Susan has handled the pacing of the story like an expert. The delicacy and quality of the description also appear to be of the top level. All these factors helped the novel to provide an excellent read to the readers.