16:00 - Abir Mukherjee with Val McDermid: Calcutta on the Brink
Abir Mukherjee with Val McDermid: Calcutta on the Brink
Though he’s an award-winning, internationally bestselling author now, Abir Mukherjee didn’t always live the dream. For twenty years he worked as an accountant before throwing away the spreadsheets. Now he’s grown to become one of the UK’s leading crime writers, his Raj-era thrillers featuring Captain Sam Wyndham and ‘Surrender-Not’ Banerjee adored by legions of loyal readers and published in twenty different countries. His popularity has continued to rise during the past year, with Death in the East, the fourth in the series, published just before the pandemic.
Mukherjee joins us today as he looks forward to the publication of book five, The Shadows of Men, about the murder of a Hindu theologian in 1920s Calcutta. In this event, he tells fellow author Val McDermid about living in Scotland but writing about India, his desire to pay tribute to Agatha Christie, and his process of planning the Wyndham and Banerjee mysteries.
**SELECTED AS WATERSTONES' THRILLER OF THE MONTH 2017****WINNER OF THE CWA ENDEAVOUR HISTORICAL DAGGER 2017**** CHOSEN AS SUNDAY TIMES CRIME BOOK OF THE MONTH 2017****SHORTLISTED FOR THE THEAKSTONS OLD PECULIER CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2018**'An exceptional historical crime novel' C.J.
WINNER 2018 WILBUR SMITH ADVENTURE WRITING PRIZESHORTLISTED FOR THE 2018 HISTORICAL AND GOLD DAGGERSLONGLISTED FOR THE 2018 CWA STEEL DAGGERFEATURED ON ITV'S ZOE BALL BOOK CLUB 2018India, 1920.
SELECTED AS WATERSTONES' THRILLER OF THE MONTH, JULY 2019CHOSEN BY THE SUNDAY TIMES AS ONE OF 100 BEST CRIME NOVELS SINCE 1945LONGLISTED FOR THE 2019 CWA GOLD DAGGER LONGLISTED FOR THE 2019 SAPERE HISTORICAL DAGGER `Smoke and Ashes is Abir Mukherjee's best book yet;