Murder you wrote: It is the moment of Indian crime fiction in the sun

(Note: This article was originally published in the India Today edition of May 12, 2025)

Between 3 to November 5 last year Dehradun hosted the India of the 2nd crime literature, for three days literary events and panel discussions that focused on writing crime. In addition to crime fiction, Bollywood main supports such as the filmmaker Prakash JHA, the journalist Sunetra Chowdhury (whose book was adapted to the Netflix series Black arrest warrant). In recent years, Indian crime fiction has recorded quality and quantity of remarkable increase. Even a fleeting view of the “New Releases” section in the bookstores will tell you the rude health of the genre in India.

Penguin Random House India, for example, has recently released Faiqa Mansabs The Sufi Storyteller, a work with crime fiction in which a alienated mother-daughter duo has to navigate a number of references to Sufi-poetry/music in order to solve the gruesome murder of a young woman in a library. The latest offers from Picador/Pan MacMillan include Scarlet Sands by Udayan Mukherjee, the second novel with Neville Wadia, a private eye character who was once a police hero from Mumbai. Over there at Harpercollins, another ex-cop private has started its Innings-the bestselling author Ashwin Sanghis Razor Sharp is the first under a announced series with Prakash 'Kutta' Kadam, Ex-COP, which became a private investigator.

“One of the reasons why I find the crime fiction so convincing is that it is such a versatile genre,” says the novelist Ankush Saikia. “It can lead them to so many interesting places as a writer. A story that begins with the guilt of an individual can expand and include social institutions, public attitudes and historical events.” Saikia is one of the most successful and recognized practitioners of crime fiction in India. His recurring character, Detective Arjun Arora, has been presented in four books so far, most recently Tears of the Dragon (spokesman Tiger). One of these books, more corpses will fall, comes from Saikia's life in the northeast (Tezpur, Assam and Shillong, Meghalaya) and in Delhi – the murder victim here is a young woman from the northeast who was allegedly killed by her 'mainland' friend in the national capital in the national capital.

“For me, the recording of the novel comes first and then the individual characters and their psychologies,” says Saikia. “I left Delhi in 2011 and returned to the northeast. Before this phase, I tried to write a cop novel in Delhi, but progress was slow. When I turned the main character into a private detective and put it in the northeast, everything went perfectly.”

Due to the way crime fiction has expanded in Indian English publishing, lovers can find a variety of environments. For example, Salil Desais The Sane Psychopath and the Murder of Sonia Raikkonen (both Westland) are contemporary crime stories playing in a point. Rohan Monteios Shadow Rising places a supernatural element into the Whodunit, with gods, demons and demi gods, all of which are kidnapped in this kidnapping thriller from Mumbai set. The protagonist is a Yaksha (a god -goding company in Hinduism) that is banished from heaven and experiences his days in today's Mumbai. Sheshs sixty is the new assassin who sees a retired company employee who decides to take murderous revenge between life in retirement in Buchclubs and tennis meetings. There are even crime fictions that are aimed at children like Sutapa Basus Murder in the jungle, where a famous five-like group examines a flood of tiger deaths in the Nagarhole Wildlife Reserve.

Another indicator of the cultural dominance of the genre is the number of new writers. This includes debut writers and practitioners who are better known for literary fiction and produce novels that are written and marketed as crime fiction. Anita Nairs hot stage and Tanuj Solankis Manjhis Mayhem are outstanding examples for the latter, as are the age of deepi Kapur.

“I think anyone who is even the slightest interest in a person's psychology is attracted to crime work,” says Girish Dutt Shuckla. “Gangster stories are different where there are organized crime and economic motives, but I think that most lay readers are attracted to the question:” Why should a completely ordinary person be driven to murder? “Shuclas crime novel cold -blooded love was published by Rupa a few years ago. Shucla, an computer scientist of education, hopes to build a career crime crime fiction.

It is undeniable that the crime fiction is in the middle of a cultural moment in India. It remains to be seen whether publishers build on this dynamic and summarize a number of writers and books – how efficiently Nordic crime fiction (Jo Nesbo, ASA Larsson et al.) Nice market. Hopefully we can create something similar and indicate Indian crime authors in the world.

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