Play sleuth and pen a crime story at a weekend workshop

Detective Lalli is back. The 60-something woman, sometimes called Homicide's Last Resort, is a retired police detective who continues to solve cases, in the manner of the classic 20th century crime fighters. Her fifth and latest case is called The Secret Gardener, and her creator, Mumbai-based writer and pediatric surgeon Kalpana Swaminathan, is understandably proud.

This weekend, Swaminathan will host a crime-writing workshop titled Murder In 7 Acts, to help others create crime stories and, possibly, play peers to detective Lalli. "This is my first workshop," says the author. "I've done informal sessions before and they were fun.

So, this time, I thought let's talk about murder."

Kalpana Swaminathan. Pic/Ishrat Syed

Besides looking at what goes into writing a good detective story, Swaminathan will engage participants in solving a crime, and later, get them to write their own short story.

"Writing a detective story is a craft. It is an endless challenge to your creativity. The trick is to pace it out and have fun. There are actually seven acts that make up a murder, and I will be going through all of them during the workshop. Murder in Seven Acts, is incidentally the name of my forthcoming book, too," she says.

The workshop is open to all but Swaminathan is hoping to meet certain groups. "Those who detest and run down detective stories, I will get them to write something they would like reading. There are people who have never written anything in their life, so a detective story is a good place to start. Then there are those who have immortal classics inside them, but have never written a word. Finally, there are people who will never write anything at all but will still learn a set of skills that will be of use to them," she says.