In this episode, author Salil Desai talks about his journey into novel writing, the influences and inspirations that have shaped his storytelling - from Hitchcock and Colin Dexter to Hakan Nesser and P.L.Deshpande, his beloved fictional character Inspector Saralkar who has been with him for 6 books already, the art and craft of coming up with a suitable title, and of course, his book with the unlikely murderer, The Grudges of Gajanan Godbole.

Host: Suparna Chatterjee (www.suparnachatterjee.com)

Instagram:⁠ thedesidetectiveshow⁠ and⁠ soup_and_chat⁠

Guest: Salil Desai

Instagram: ⁠@salildesai_mysteries

www.salildesai.com

Books and references:

Malice Aforethought by Francis Iles/Anthony Berkeley

The Murder of Roger Akroyd by Agatha Christie

Books by Salil Desai

Killing Ashish Karve

The Murder of Sonia Raikonnen

Three and a Half Murders

Murder Milestone

The Kid Killer

206 Bones

The Grudges of Gajanan Godbole

The Sane Psycopath

Murder on a Side Street

Lost Libido and Gulp Fiction

Podcast Theme Music by B. Prasanna and Khurshed Batliwala 

Instagram: @b_prasanna and @khurshedbatliwala

Haradhoner Doshti Chhele:

https://youtu.be/z4S3fVtyCFc?si=XsuWsCUmXZ-GbrFr

Writers have consistently found ways to incorporate wildlife into interesting whodunit plots. In this episode, host Suparna Chatterjee delves into some prominent detective stories from India featuring wildlife in a significant manner. She is joined by wildlife photographer (and avid detective fiction fan) Shoumo Bhattacharya, who talks about his favourite detective stories featuring animals, and about his detecting experiences in the jungle. 

Host: Suparna Chatterjee (www.suparnachatterjee.com)

Instagram: thedesidetectiveshow and soup_and_chat

Guest: Shoumo Bhattacharya

Instagram: @shoumo29

Books mentioned in this episode:

By Edgar Allan Poe - Murders in the Rue Morgue

By Arthur Conan Doyle - The Hound of the Baskervilles,

The Adventures of the Speckled Band

By Agatha Christie - Dumb Witness, A Death in the Clouds, Elephants Can Remember, Five Little Pigs, Pale Horse

By Saradindu Bandopadhyay - Chorabali (The Quicksand), Makorshar Rosh (The Tarantula's Juice), Shojarur Kanta (The Quills of the Porcupine), Chiriakhana (The Zoo).

By Satyajit Ray - Sonar Kella (The Golden Fortress), Royal Bengal Rohosyo (The Mystery of the Royal Bengal Tiger), Badshahi Angti (The Emperor's Ring)

By Sunil Gangopadhyay - Sabuj Dwiper Raja (The King of the Verdant Island)

By Vaseem Khan (@vaseemkhanwriter) - The Baby Ganesh Detective Agency

By Abir Mukherjee (@radiomukhers) - A Necessary Evil

By HRF Keating - Inspector Ghote Hunts the Peacock

By Harini Nagendra (@harini.nagendra) - A Nest of Vipers, Into the Leopard's Den

By Suparna Chatterjee (@soup_and_chat) - The All Bengali Crime Detectives, A Gathering of Crows

By Mallika Ravikumar (@mallika.ravikuamr) - The Case of the Missing Turtles

By Ravi Subramanium (@ravisubramanian70) - The Mystery of the Missing Cat

Podcast Theme Music by B. Prasanna and Khurshed Batliwala 

Instagram: @b_prasanna and @khurshedbatliwala

Haradhoner Doshti Chhele:

https://youtu.be/z4S3fVtyCFc?si=XsuWsCUmXZ-GbrFr

In this episode, host Suparna Chatterjee talks to author Kanchana Banerjee about her book, Nobody's Child, published by @harpercollinsin, where a TV celebrity is presumed dead, only to resurrect two years later, throwing the nation into a frenzy.

We also talk about the writing process, the joys and the frustrations of being a writer, navigating psychologically disturbing passages and the difficulty of coming up with a suitable book title.

Host: Suparna Chatterjee (www.suparnachatterjee.com)

Instagram:⁠ thedesidetectiveshow⁠ and⁠ soup_and_chat⁠

Guest: Kanchana Banerjee (https://kanchanabanerjeecom.wordpress.com)

Instagram: @kanchanabanerjee

Books by Kanchana Banerjee

A Forgotten Affair

Eye on You

Nobody's Child

Until I Find You

The Actor

Podcast Theme Music by B. Prasanna and Khurshed Batliwala 

Instagram: b_prasanna and @khurshedbatliwala

Haradhoner Doshti Chhele:

https://youtu.be/z4S3fVtyCFc?si=XsuWsCUmXZ-GbrFr

In this stimulating conversation, drawing from his vast knowledge of Hindi movies and popular culture, author Arnab Ray discusses what he thinks makes a good detective novel. We talk about the male gaze in crime novels, 'And Then There Were None' and other things Christie, post-war detective novels from Japan, his favourite desi detective, Byomkesh Bakshi, and of course about 'The Mahabharata Murders' and his upcoming book, 'The Bucket'.

Host: Suparna Chatterjee (www.suparnachatterjee.com)

Instagram: thedesidetectiveshow and soup_and_chat

Guest: Arnab Ray

Instagram: @greatbong

www.greatbong.net

Books by Arnab Ray:

May I Hebb Your Attention Pliss?

The Mine

The Sultan of Delhi

Shakchunni

Yatrik

The Mahabharata Murders

Podcast Theme Music by B. Prasanna and Khurshed Batliwala 

Instagram: b_prasanna and @khurshedbatliwala

Haradhoner Doshti Chhele:

https://youtu.be/z4S3fVtyCFc?si=XsuWsCUmXZ-GbrFr

The name Rabindranath Tagore needs no introduction. 

In this episode, Suparna takes a look at his run-ins with the detective department of the Calcutta police in real life, and the short story he penned titled The Detective published in 1898. 

Host: Suparna Chatterjee (www.suparnachatterjee.com)

Instagram: soup_and_chat and thedesidetectiveshow

Email: [email protected]

Books and references:

Wikipedia

The Detective

When Tagore lost his pen

When Tagore was named a Conspirator

Podcast theme music by Khurshed Batliwala and B. Prasanna

This is the concluding part of the sensational germ murder case of colonial India.

A sizeable inheritance, a disgruntled half-brother, a killer bacteria and the plot of a Sherlock Holmes novel come together in the sensational royal murder involving the scion of a zamindari estate called Pakur.  The planning was so meticulous and the execution so clinical, that it made headlines around the globe, from London to Sydney to New York.

This case was unlike anything the world had seen outside the works of detective fiction. In this episode, I take a look at the sensational 'germ murder' of 1933.

Host: Suparna Chatterjee (www.suparnachatterjee.com)

Instagram: soup_and_chat and thedesidetectiveshow

Email: [email protected]

Books and references:

Wikipedia

⁠⁠Article in BBC.com/Asia⁠⁠

⁠⁠Calcutta High Court Judgment⁠⁠

⁠⁠Article in The Telegraph⁠⁠

The Poisoner of Bengal by Dan Morrison

⁠⁠How Bubonic Plague Reshaped Mumbai⁠⁠

⁠⁠How Bombay Fought the Plague⁠⁠

Podcast theme music by Khurshed Batliwala and B. Prasanna

This is Part 2 of the sensational 'Germ Murder' of 1933.

A sizeable inheritance, a disgruntled half-brother, a killer bacteria and the plot of a Sherlock Holmes novel come together in the sensational royal murder involving the scion of a zamindari estate called Pakur.  The planning was so meticulous and the execution so clinical, that it made headlines around the globe, from London to Sydney to New York.

This case was unlike anything the world had seen outside the works of detective fiction. In this episode, I take a look at the sensational 'germ murder' of 1933.

Host: Suparna Chatterjee (www.suparnachatterjee.com)

Instagram: soup_and_chat and thedesidetectiveshow

Email: [email protected]

Books and references:

Wikipedia

⁠Article in BBC.com/Asia⁠

⁠Calcutta High Court Judgment⁠

⁠Article in The Telegraph⁠

The Poisoner of Bengal by Dan Morrison

⁠How Bubonic Plague Reshaped Mumbai⁠

⁠How Bombay Fought the Plague⁠

Podcast theme music by Khurshed Batliwala and B. Prasanna

A sizeable inheritance, a disgruntled half-brother, a killer bacteria and the plot of a Sherlock Holmes novel come together in the sensational royal murder involving the scion of a zamindari estate called Pakur.  The planning was so meticulous and the execution so clinical, that it made headlines around the globe, from London to Sydney to New York.

This case was unlike anything the world had seen outside the works of detective fiction. In this episode, I take a look at the sensational 'germ murder' of 1933.

Host: Suparna Chatterjee (www.suparnachatterjee.com)

Instagram: soup_and_chat and thedesidetectiveshow

Email: [email protected]

Books and references:

Wikipedia

Article in BBC.com/Asia

Calcutta High Court Judgment

Article in The Telegraph

The Poisoner of Bengal by Dan Morrison

How Bubonic Plague reshaped Mumbai

How Bombay Fought the Plague

Podcast theme music by Khurshed Batliwala and B. Prasanna

In this episode of The Desi Detective Show, author Meeti Shroff-Shah talks to host Suparna Chatterjee about the world of Temple Hill, that posh area in south Mumbai home to Gujarati Jains, for whom Ahimsa or non-violence is a fundamental tenet of life. A murder in such a neighbourhood, where all life is considered sacred, is unthinkable. Yet, that is what the residents of Temple Hill find themselves grappling with in this fun series crackling with wit, sizzling with tension and sprinkled with a dash of romance - and we are not even referring to the sumptuous buffet spreads here.

Instagram: meetishroffshah

Books by Meeti:

The Death of Kirti Kadakia

A Matrimonial Murder

Do you Know any Good Boys?

Theme music by Khurshed Batliwala and B. Prasanna

In this episode, I take a look at Saradindu Bandopadhyay's iconic creation, Byomkesh Bakshi.

Host: Suparna Chatterjee (www.suparnachatterjee.com)

Instagram: soup_and_chat and thedesidetectiveshow

Email: [email protected]

Books and references:

Byomkesh Somogro by Saradindu Bandopadhyay

Inside messbaris
Academic articles by Sunit Barui and Abeer Kapur

Podcast theme music by Khurshed Batliwala and B. Prasanna