Bombay Monsoon

The Emergency, a real-life domestic crisis in 1975 India, provides the backdrop to this heart-pounding series launch from Ziskin (the Ellie Stone novels). American journalist Danny Jacobs has just moved to Bombay (now Mumbai), where he works for a fledgling news agency. He soon meets a mysterious neighbor in his building, Willy Smets, famed for throwing elaborate parties for the expat community. Jacobs soon becomes enamored with Smets’s girlfriend, Sushmita, and begins to believe that all may not be what it seems in Smets’s world. As the country’s political situation continues to devolve, leading to censorship in the media, and monsoon rains pound Bombay, Jacobs’s relationship with Sushmita blossoms, putting them both in jeopardy. Meanwhile, Jacobs also has a roll of film with photos of an assassin who murdered a local police officer. When the assassin comes for the film, Jacobs and Sushmita are forced to flee to Poona (now Pune). Ziskin uses the atmosphere of monsoon season and period details to create a lush, vividly imagined world, while the political situation creates palpable tension throughout. Fans of classic political thrillers will be satisfied. Agent: Kimberley Cameron, Kimberley Cameron & Assoc. (Dec.)