4 pacy books about Mumbai to keep you busy through the monsoon

From whodunits set in Colaba to a coming-of-age story in the mill hub of Lalbaug, and an underworld pot-boiler from the city’s most notorious address, here’s a list of four pacy books to keep you busy through the monsoon

Samina

By Troy Ribeiro
Journalist Troy Ribeiro’s debut novel, Samina (Notion Press), was published in the midst of the pandemic last year. The novel begins with Abdul Rehman arriving in Mumbai from Kolkata, to search for his missing daughter’s killer.

Samina, pursuing a Masters in one of the reputed colleges of South Mumbai, had written to him, saying that should anything happen to her, he must hold Irfan Patel, a tourist guide, responsible. Armed with this letter, Rehman lands up in Mumbai, identifies Patel, and accuses him of the murder. It’s now upon the Mumbai Police to find Samina, dead or alive. Will they? Read to find out.
For: Rs 250

It’s Also About Mynah

By Rucha Chitrodia
This tender coming-of-age story is about young Mynah, who moves to Mumbai to join an ad agency, much against the wishes of her paranoid father. Here, she is reluctantly catapulted into adulthood, confronted with bitter truths—a ghosting boyfriend, struggles at her workplace, a meeting with her runaway birth mother.

As a paying guest in a flat in the city’s old mill district of Lalbaug, a locality that has its own story to tell, she has numerous experiences. Journalist Rucha Chitrodia’s It’s Also About Mynah (Amaryllis) is about heartbreak, healing, and everything else that makes us human.
For: Rs 299

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Bombay 3

By Jitendra Dixit
SET in one of the most feared localities of Bombay where the zip code is 400003, Jitendra Dixit’s debut novel, Bombay 3 (Bloomsbury India) revolves around a Hindu boy and his two Muslim friends. Their neighbourhood, marred by communal riots, and terrorism, puts a strain on their relationship as well.

They choose different paths in life but circumstances connect the trio for a common goal. Beginning in the bylanes of Bombay of the 1970s, Dixit’s fast-paced thriller takes the reader to Mosul in ISIS’s Iraq of 2014 and finally, to the streets of Bangkok, where the underworld has spread its tentacles.
For: Rs 499

Murder at Daisy Apartments

By Shabnam Minwalla
After penning Colaba: The Diamond At The Tip Of Mumbai, which was a compelling portrait of the South Mumbai address, writer Shabnam Minwalla has once again sought inspiration in the neighbourhood for her new young adult thriller. The plot of Murder at Daisy Apartments (Speaking Tiger) begins on Day 46 of the lockdown in May 2020, when Baman Marker, the chairperson of an apartment building, is found poisoned in his home.

Since the twin apartments are sealed, the murderer is likely to have been one of the residents. Fifteen-year-old Nandini Venkat, a devourer of murder mysteries, had spotted a pair of legs on the stairs the day Marker had been killed. And so, curious as she is, she begins her investigation with her twin, Ved, and best friend Shanaya. We think it’s just the perfect whodunit to keep your child hooked this mosoon.   
For: Rs 399

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