The Stand-In

A movie star’s stand-in becomes entangled in the mystery of the star’s disappearance, leading to both a high-stakes search and a journey of self-discovery in this warm and witty suspense novel by critically acclaimed author Sheena Kamal.

They call her the stand-in. Her name is Shruthi, but no one on the set of the action movie cares enough to know that—she is simply the double for Rina Rao, the stunningly gorgeous actress and star of the production. So when Rina leaves her purse with Shruthi and then promptly goes missing without a trace, no one thinks to ask the stand-in for information. Even after Shruthi opens Rina’s purse to find a loaded gun.

What happened to Rina? Why did she trust Shruthi with this final act?

Once the search for Rina becomes public and Shruthi begins her own investigation, she is forced to examine the events that brought her here: a friendship that ended in tragedy, a break with her family, and the implosion of her former career. More than anything else, Shruthi must learn to stop being a secondary character in her own life and take ownership of her story. But by the time she discovers the dangerous events that Rina was mixed up in, she may have become so enmeshed in this mystery that the only way out is to use that gun after all.