Lethal Spice

Swati Kaushal

A hundred-year-old stage steeped in tradition. 

Six contestants with a world to gain and everything to lose. 

Three judges who stand between them and their dreams. 

It is October in Shimla. The air is crisp, the mist is rising and the stakes are sky-high as the finalists of India's No. 1 reality cooking show, Hot Chef, are pitted against each other in a live shoot at the historic Gaiety Theatre. 

The spices are ground, the fires are lit, the knives have been sharpened... Then things start to go horribly wrong. 

As she picks her way through a maze of testimonies and motives, Shimla's Superintendent of Police, Niki Marwah, is more determined than ever to get to the bottom of a perplexing mystery – one that is dangerously close to her heart.