A slew of Bombay noir books are in the pipeline. What makes this city a constant inspiration for writers of crime and mystery?
Mystery writer Sujata Massey is on a visit to the city to research her book and has been scouting areas such as Crawford Market. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi
Last Thursday, Sujata Massey was walking the alleys of Abdul Rehman Street, crisscrossing into Zaveri Bazaar in one of the oldest parts of the city. Her writer’s mind was seeing a story come alive. The mystery author has spent the last 13 years spinning tales of intrigue inspired by her visits to Mumbai. The earliest was in 2010 from she was down from Sussex, and left fascinated by Kala Ghoda’s 1897-built Sassoon Library and the Royal Yacht Club, a 10-minute walk down towards Apollo Bunder. Marine Drive’s John Adamas-designed Victorian Gothic syle structure, Wilson College found a place as Woodburn College in her 2021 title, The Bombay Prince. “The great thing about the city is that most of the old historical structures continue to stand well preserved. Also, because it was one of the few Indian cities that was cosmopolitan in nature, even in the 1800s and early 1900s, you had women work alongside the men. It was a smorgasbord of ethnicities and religions. That’s what makes it such a great place to set a crime novel in,” she says.
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Massey’s best-known work, Widows of Malabar Hill (2019), which won the Agatha Award for Best Historical Novel, and Amazon Best Book of 2018, was a legal mystery series and saw her foray into writing novels set in Mumbai for the first time.
Bachubai and Pherozebai Godrej were found dead at the foot of the Rajabai Clock Tower in the university campus in 1891. The unsolved case had caused ripples within the city’s Parsi community, and became inspiration for Nev March’s 2020 novel, Murder in Old Bombay, where the protagonist, Captain Jim Agnihotri, is hired by the family to uncover the truth. Pic/Getty Images
Massey is joined by a community of writers who agree that erstwhile Bombay’s brooding structures make the perfect setting for a murder mystery. Throw in charming criminals and committed cops, gang wars, a sprinkle of Bollywood and a dreamy monsoon, and you have the perfect plot.
New-Jersey based Nev March’s debut novel Murder in Old Bombay (2020) followed the adventures of Captain Jim Agnihotri who wants to solve the mystery of two women falling from the Mumbai University’s tower in broad daylight. Anuradha Kumar, also based in New Jersey, is set to release The Kidnapping of Mark Twain: A Bombay Mystery, this December.
The Watson’s Esplanade Hotel in which is now under renovation, make an appearance in Anuradha Kumar’s The Kidnapping of Mark Twain. Pics/Getty Images
Literary agent Kanishka Gupta sees the lure that the city has for writers. “There is so much to draw from culturally and historically. So yes, these books work. They also could end up making money in the long run since OTT platforms are keen to purchase the rights of books from this genre, developing them into web series material. Death of Kirti Kadakia: A Temple Hill Mystery by Meeti Shroff-Shah is set in Pali Hill, Bandra, and is being converted into a series for television.”
Massey, who relies on field work, discussions with local historians and pouring over old records, finds inspiration in the details. “I was told that the Coroner’s Court back in the 1900s was located at JJ Hospital. I went to the National Museum of Indian Cinema on Pedder Road last week, and browsed through vintage posters and film equipment. It all comes handy.” What helps additionally to have Bombay attached to the name of your title is its standing in the West, amped up by movies like Slumdog millionaire and Netflix show Scared Games. “This city has so many different cultures and communities—the Parsis, Muslims, Jains, the Jews. There is also the class divide to delve into, the uber rich and then the working class. It offers you a lot to work with, especially if you are fashioning a period mystery.”
Anuradha Kumar and Nev March
Unlike Massey who spent her childhood in Sussex with an Indian father and German mother, March grew up in Mazagaon by the docks. Her grandparents lived in a Parsi colony near Bombay Central. “I remember everything so clearly, vividly… my grandmother’s slippers going sup sup, the crunching of gravel, the smells of Mazagaon… we lived next to the ice factory and a line of bakeries. So, of course, I wanted to weave all of it into my stories.”
Crime as a genre excites a larger section of readership, March thinks, and the element of surprise that such fiction serves up adds to its allure. Add to it, Mumbai, and it’s a cinch. “It has a very strong character, and rich history. For me, the city is a cultural cauldron, offering a writer a wide backdrop. Lots of non-Indian readers have corresponded with me about my writing on Mumbai. I think Indian literature is going through a resurgence—it’s about being a good mix of an ancient culture that is now looking towards modernity, and I want to make it accessible. It’s about making readers aware of the enchantment of India.”
Rashmi Menon, executive editor of HarperCollins, publishers of March’s book, say that the market for Bombay noir books in the West might be relatively niche compared to mainstream genres, but there is a growing interest in diverse literary genres and global literature. “Nev’s Murder in Old Bombay is a perfect example of this,” she says. “I don’t think there is a set model that works. There are many Indian as well as international authors who have written books set in Mumbai. If there’s Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts, there’s also Maximum City by Suketu Mehta—both highly successful. It is ultimately about how well the book connects with readers.”
Enthused by the response, publishing houses are also taking the cue. Speaking Tiger Books approached Anuradha Kumar to write a Bombay mystery series. The Kidnapping of Mark Twain is the first in the line-up. Kumar, a former journalist, spent 14 years in Mumbai, and it was while doing some casual reading that she learnt that American writer-humorist Mark Twain had spent time in the city. “What if he had got kidnapped when he was here! That’s the imaginary thought that kickstarted the book. I have an American protagonist, Henry Baker, through whom I am offering my perspective to my readers. Now that I am an outsider, I thought this was an ideal approach,” says the author whose research material includes newspaper clippings and non-fiction titles on the city. March knew she wasn’t going to be visiting the location of her book anytime soon, so she sat with old maps of the city and watched videos online that offered her a glimpse of the Bombay that was. “One of its appeals is that all kinds of people made it their home, musicians, writers, artists,” she says.
Renuka Chatterjee, VP-Publishing, Speaking Tiger Books, says that the culture of money which makes this the commercial capital is a plus. “Crime and cash seem to go together. It doesn’t matter where the author hails from. Anuradha lived in Mumbai for over a decade; others like Vikram Chandra live abroad. You have to know a city well enough to write about it. In fact, living away could offer a fresh perspective.” Gupta though, disagrees. He says that non-Indian crime readers still tend to read non-Indian crime novelists. “Nobody has really come of age. In terms of sales, we are not at that level yet. The appetite in the West is still for literary fiction.”
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