The Thrill of Suspense

Authors Anuradha Kumar, Vaseem Khan, and Nev March reveal how place, research, and personal history fuel the suspense that keeps readers turning the pages of their novels. Interviewed by BHARTI KIRCHNER, who is a notable mystery writer herself.

The mystery/thriller genre is considered the second most popular book genre, topped only by the romance category. What accounts for this popularity? Here’s the answer: Readers are held in suspense by these books as they fly through the pages and navigate a twisty plot. “What will happen next?” they ask themselves. While they piece together secrets and clues, they get a mental workout, develop empathy, and learn real-life lessons, all the while being entertained. In the following interview, three acclaimed writers with roots in the subcontinent provide insights into their stories and methods—as well as the messages they wish to pass on to their readers.

Kirchner. What type of research did you do before/during writing your latest book? What was most effective?

Khan: Quantum of Menace is more than a mystery novel. It is also a book about the state of our world and how technological change is impacting us in so many ways. I love technology but I also understand its dangers, because I’ve worked at a research center at University College London called the Dawes Centre for Future Crime (which appears in the book), where my scientist colleagues look at the potential dangers of new and emerging technologies such as AI. This research led to the key idea for the book’s plot— and the title!

March: I am referring to The Silversmith’s Puzzle. I do a fair amount of research, using different methods. To learn more about the caste system, I interviewed individuals from the Sonar (goldsmith) caste who are close connections to me and willing to share both the good and bad about traditional practices. I found several ideas for events and people in this novel as I explored historical books like The Parsis, which was written by Delphine Menant and reissued by M Murzban in 1917. Using online tools, I researched the weight differences between gold and other metals.

Old photographs and maps helped me understand the geography of Malabar Hill and the coastline, which has drastically changed in the last 130 years. Each topic requires a different form of research, and I often use multiple tools: Pinterest pictures, personal interviews, old court documents, and records left by British and Indian administrators.

Kumar: It all began when I re-read Mark Twain’s Following the Equator, published in 1897 after his world travels. A series of things fell into place for me. Since I lived in the U.S., I wanted to work on a book, write something that traversed these different worlds I knew about. At least I could claim to have some acquaintance with Bombay, the U.S., and history as a discipline. So the characters fell in place, but to evoke the world of the 1890s, and write The Kidnapping of Mark Twain, I had do a lot more reading.

Kirchner. How important is the setting to your book? Please talk about the features of the place where it all happened.

March: Setting is a crucial element. Colonial India under British rule colors not only the backdrop but serves as an ominous and omnipresent cause for the tense respect between Captain Jim and Chief Superintendent of Police McIntryre. The Parsi community offers both endearing family scenes and a cold isolation to those, like Diana, who disobey the norms of behavior, or rebel. And then there’s India. It’s a vast and colorful palette—so dense, so multifarious, so complex and enchanting that it is difficult to restrain myself from adding more enchanting characters. Yes, I’d like to write a simpler story. But the context of racial relationships between the host of subcultures in India would make that a ludicrous travesty.

Khan: The bulk of the action takes place between two locations: London, where Q has lived and worked for almost three decades, and a fictional town in the Home Counties called Wickstone-on-Water. Wickstone is a medieval market town, the sort of place with a small population now beginning to see change due to migration and the impact of county lines criminal operations.

In London, there are three key locations that appear in the novel. The first is Q’s home in Kennington, just a stone’s throw from the Oval Cricket Ground.

I’m a cricket nut, so this was a no-brainer. Kennington is an expensive neighborhood, and Q is “lucky to be able to afford [his house] on a government salary, but the previous owner had been murdered by a lover in the upstairs bathroom in particularly grisly fashion, lowering the asking price.” The second location is University College London, where Q visits the Quantum Sciences Institute and the Centre for Future Crime. The third location is the headquarters of MI6 (the Secret Intelligence Service) in Vauxhall, a majestic building on the Thames that resembles “a neo-Mayan temple.” The building has been featured in Bond films, most notably in Skyfall, where it is spectacularly blown up.

Kumar: Any work of historical fiction must bring the period alive. And I looked up old illustrations and sketches, even picture postcards of Bombay at this time. Colaba, South Bombay, had wide expansive avenues. Landmarks familiar today like the Gateway of India and the Taj Hotel were obviously absent. But there were the crowded streets in the Fort Area, Dongri, Masjid and elsewhere, mangroves in the Sewree area, and the cotton mills in the heart of the city—Girgaum and Parel, for example. I read somewhere that jackals were a common sight in Malabar Hill then, especially at night. And in place of the high-rises one sees today, there were bungalows with spacious gardens, and chawls where the mill workers lived (there are chawls still but giving way to towers and high-rises). So this was Bombay of the 1890s, where the books are set.

Kirchner: How have your environment and upbringing colored your book?

Kumar: I read history right through university and I guess that’s why there is so much history in what I write. Also, my father, who worked in the government, had a transferable job. He had lost his home in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). We lived in several places in India, and as an adult I’ve lived in Singapore, and after moving to the U.S., in Maryland and now, New Jersey. So that sense of loss—of being an ‘outsider’ looking in—has, I guess, colored my writing.

March: Different aspects of The Silversmith’s Puzzle will resonate for Indian readers, more than my American audience. Our shared environment (in India) may heighten the emotional resonance of some scenes. Much of this depth comes from my upbringing in a middle-class home in Mumbai. My parents were avid readers and encouraged energetic debates across generations at dinner. Early on, my position reflected my esoteric reading. My father even expected me to take up law as a career. I disappointed him, by declining the legal field.

Living in Mumbai exposed me to a host of subcultures, since I made friends and connections in all religious and caste communities. These interactions astonished me, because their families operated so differently to my own. Nor was this exposure restricted to Indian communities. My father travelled often for business (he worked in TELCO Exports Division) and brought home visitors from different countries. These discussions too broadened my horizons quite early in life.

Khan: I was born and raised in the U.K. I grew up watching James Bond onscreen. Because of the Bond films, Q is a globally recognized and beloved character. At the same time, we don’t know much about him, as he appears very little in the actual Bond books. So this gave me great scope to create a compelling backstory for him. Q is also perfect for the role of amateur detective—he’s a scientist with a powerful intellect, a man who is used to thinking his way around problems, turning his mind to solving crimes. He’s also a patriot and a man who understands how Britain is changing. In many ways, Q is based on me!

AnuradhaKumar lives in New Jersey. Shehasan MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Common, The Missouri Review, Catamaran Literary Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. She’s the author of The Kid- napping of Mark Twain and other books, both fiction and nonfiction.

Vaseem Khan is the author of two award-winning crime series set in India, including Quantum of Menace, the first in a series featuring Q from the James Bond franchise. His Midnight at Malabar House, set in 1950s Bombay, won the CWA Historical Dagger. Born and raised in the U.K., he spent a decade working in India.

Nev March is the author of award-winning historical mysteries Murder in Old Bombay and other books. She has published four novels, and her stories appear in numerous mystery and crime fiction anthologies. She teaches at Rutgers University’s Osher Institute and is the New York chapter president of Mystery Writers of America.

Bharti Kirchner, a Khabar contributor, is the author of nine novels, including Shiva Dancing and Darjeeling, and four cookbooks. Her Murder at Jaipur: A Maya Mallick Mystery is the third novel in her detective series. Her work has been translated into German, Dutch, Spanish, Marathi, Thai, and other languages. She lives in Washington state.