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The Hachette Book of Indian Crime Fiction: Twenty-first Century Crime Fiction in English
After a lifetime of being overshadowed, a librarian seeks revenge on his twin brother.
In a chaotic wedding procession, no one notices that the groom has been shot – not even when he slumps face forward on his horse.
In a lodge in the Himalayas, a journalist attending a workshop for budding crime-fiction writers is accused of murder.
And more…
A gripping collection, The Hachette Book of Indian Crime Fiction offers suspense in the unlikeliest of places, twisted plots at each turn of the page and criminals hiding in plain sight. From sinister motives to lonely obsessions, these stories are equal parts shocking and suspenseful while also highlighting everyday tensions of our lives – a haunting reminder that in today's world, no one is ever truly innocent.
In a chaotic wedding procession, no one notices that the groom has been shot – not even when he slumps face forward on his horse.
In a lodge in the Himalayas, a journalist attending a workshop for budding crime-fiction writers is accused of murder.
And more…
A gripping collection, The Hachette Book of Indian Crime Fiction offers suspense in the unlikeliest of places, twisted plots at each turn of the page and criminals hiding in plain sight. From sinister motives to lonely obsessions, these stories are equal parts shocking and suspenseful while also highlighting everyday tensions of our lives – a haunting reminder that in today's world, no one is ever truly innocent.
304 pages
Published September 19, 2025
15 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 8, 2026
Overall it was a decent collection of stories. Some better than others, some which did not belong in a crime anthology, some which left a mark, some which felt like wasted time. Like all anthologies, here also not everything worked. Individual ratings below:
1. The Librarian - it was okayish. I was expecting it to be story about books and libraries but it wasn’t. Books are barely mentioned and don’t really hold any impact on the story. It was more of a corporate greed story but even that is not sufficient to justify this story to belong in a crime collection. 2/5
2. King Phisher - POV from the other side of scam calls. Wow, now I get all the hype around RV Raman. This was so good and I wanted it to be longer. 5/5
3. Society Murder - delicious and gossipy with a side of lesson on how we treat or think about our househelp. 4/5
4. The Baraat - very powerful story of a typical Indian arranged marriage wedding and the strings attached with it. 4/5
5. Stride - another story from a scammer’s POV but not as good. I found it pretty boring and dialogues read like a cringe Bollywood movie. 1/5
6. The Leopard’s Leap Crime Fiction Workshop - someone dies at a writers’ retreat and we start bang in the middle of an accusatory session. The premise was right up my alley and I wish that I liked it but it was very boring. Also, they had nicknames for many characters; Manoj becomes Mango and Chetna becomes Chutney, Purini becomes Purity. I can’t think of anyone in real life who would give nicknames like that. This actually made things even more ridiculous for me. 1/5
7. Murder by a Raised Eyebrow - very realistic and very timely story about politics and religion. 5/5
8. The Mermaid’s Song - a psychological thriller with an unreliable narrator. A man and his girlfriend watch as a couple makes out on Mumbai local, what happens next?! Every moment is filled with tension. I loved it. 5/5
9. Out of Mercy - police procedural but we don’t really see how the police are working like collecting forensics etc. Don’t understand the need for the story to be set up in New Jersey when the victims and the cop were all Indians. The setting added no difference. Overall the story was okay even if quite predictable. 2/5
10. Crime and Crime - my biggest complain is that the story was written in three paragraphs; the first being seven pages long, the second one page, the third five pages and the fourth two pages long. It could have been divided better but it became annoying. Coming to the story, it’s about a kid who turns into a despicable person due to circumstances. Very boring. 1/5
11. The Lamplighter - set in pre-partition India. I did not enjoy the story, nothing really happened in it and there was no crime in it. It was more of a love story, or maybe not even that. I don’t know, I didn’t get the point of the story. 1/5
12. A Divine Madness - impact of various parasites on our species’ neurological disorders and beliefs. It was mildly interesting but once again, I’m not sure what this story is doing in a Crime anthology. There was no crime committed, apart from a brief mention of the murder of a friend by a lecturer to our protagonist. This example was over within a paragraph. 2/5
13. Burden - I was on my toes throughout! It’s a story about a married couple facing issues because the husband’s mother is sick. Just go in blind and you will be rewarded. Every character was unlikeable in this story and it was so very thrilling. I’ll lookout for more from Salil Desai. This is my favourite story in this anthology. 5/5
14. In the Poisoned Entrails - a corporate employee is dead, was it suicide or was it murder? We also get to look at few murders by vigilante Laaldeo which I understand was for character establishment but I found it unnecessary. Overall, I didn’t hate it but I didn’t love it either. 3/5
1. The Librarian - it was okayish. I was expecting it to be story about books and libraries but it wasn’t. Books are barely mentioned and don’t really hold any impact on the story. It was more of a corporate greed story but even that is not sufficient to justify this story to belong in a crime collection. 2/5
2. King Phisher - POV from the other side of scam calls. Wow, now I get all the hype around RV Raman. This was so good and I wanted it to be longer. 5/5
3. Society Murder - delicious and gossipy with a side of lesson on how we treat or think about our househelp. 4/5
4. The Baraat - very powerful story of a typical Indian arranged marriage wedding and the strings attached with it. 4/5
5. Stride - another story from a scammer’s POV but not as good. I found it pretty boring and dialogues read like a cringe Bollywood movie. 1/5
6. The Leopard’s Leap Crime Fiction Workshop - someone dies at a writers’ retreat and we start bang in the middle of an accusatory session. The premise was right up my alley and I wish that I liked it but it was very boring. Also, they had nicknames for many characters; Manoj becomes Mango and Chetna becomes Chutney, Purini becomes Purity. I can’t think of anyone in real life who would give nicknames like that. This actually made things even more ridiculous for me. 1/5
7. Murder by a Raised Eyebrow - very realistic and very timely story about politics and religion. 5/5
8. The Mermaid’s Song - a psychological thriller with an unreliable narrator. A man and his girlfriend watch as a couple makes out on Mumbai local, what happens next?! Every moment is filled with tension. I loved it. 5/5
9. Out of Mercy - police procedural but we don’t really see how the police are working like collecting forensics etc. Don’t understand the need for the story to be set up in New Jersey when the victims and the cop were all Indians. The setting added no difference. Overall the story was okay even if quite predictable. 2/5
10. Crime and Crime - my biggest complain is that the story was written in three paragraphs; the first being seven pages long, the second one page, the third five pages and the fourth two pages long. It could have been divided better but it became annoying. Coming to the story, it’s about a kid who turns into a despicable person due to circumstances. Very boring. 1/5
11. The Lamplighter - set in pre-partition India. I did not enjoy the story, nothing really happened in it and there was no crime in it. It was more of a love story, or maybe not even that. I don’t know, I didn’t get the point of the story. 1/5
12. A Divine Madness - impact of various parasites on our species’ neurological disorders and beliefs. It was mildly interesting but once again, I’m not sure what this story is doing in a Crime anthology. There was no crime committed, apart from a brief mention of the murder of a friend by a lecturer to our protagonist. This example was over within a paragraph. 2/5
13. Burden - I was on my toes throughout! It’s a story about a married couple facing issues because the husband’s mother is sick. Just go in blind and you will be rewarded. Every character was unlikeable in this story and it was so very thrilling. I’ll lookout for more from Salil Desai. This is my favourite story in this anthology. 5/5
14. In the Poisoned Entrails - a corporate employee is dead, was it suicide or was it murder? We also get to look at few murders by vigilante Laaldeo which I understand was for character establishment but I found it unnecessary. Overall, I didn’t hate it but I didn’t love it either. 3/5
November 20, 2025
A caveat: I have a story in this collection; Society Murder is set in an NCR housing society where a sudden, violent death among the residents exposes the prejudices and dynamics in the insulated worlds within our cities.
I will not praise my own story; I will leave you to judge it. This review is about the rest of The Hachette Book of Indian Crime Fiction.
There are fourteen stories in this collection, all varied, some skating very close to other genres. Anuradha Kumar’s The Lamplighter, set in turn-of-the-century Bombay, for instance, is another example of her skill with weaving history and mystery together. Anil Menon’s A Divine Madness is black humour (not really crime fiction, in my opinion, but a wry tongue-in-cheek sci-fi comment on religion). The last story in the collection, Sumit Bardhan’s In the Poisoned Entrails is set in a dystopian world that sounds eerily like our own when it comes to corruption, ambition, and the conscienceless greed for more. It is also familiar-sounding in one other respect: technology (in this case AI) is resulting in crime.
Like In the Poisoned Entrails, several other stories too reflect modern India in its highly-connected, highly-vulnerable form, a country where everyday someone dreams up new ways to use technology to scam the gullible. RV Raman’s King Phisher is (obviously) one of these stories; so is Arnab Ray’s Stride. Nev March’s Out of Mercy, set amongst the Indian diaspora in the US, touches upon the addiction to online gambling (and the desperation underlying it) in a heartbreaking way.
Naturally, given that there are many ways of looking at crime, the anthology is pretty textured. There’s a good deal of variety here: different ways of approaching the topic, different styles and techniques. Manjula Padmanabhan’s The Leopard’s Leap Crime Fiction Workshop uses a writers’ retreat as the setting for a murder, in a darkly humorous way that is at the same time a wryly amusing look at writers themselves. It’s a very different story, say, from Tanuj Solanki’s Crime and Crime, a tale with no dialogue, just great blocks of text—not something I typically like, but highly effective here, in a story of exploitation and crime and conscience.
Crime and Crime is one of my favourite stories in this collection. I liked pretty much all the stories here, but I always end up having some that really stay with me. Among the others that I admired enough to wish I had written it (the greatest mark of my esteem!) are Meeti Shroff-Shah’s superb The Baraat; Salil Desai’s Burden; and RV Raman’s King Phisher.
I will not praise my own story; I will leave you to judge it. This review is about the rest of The Hachette Book of Indian Crime Fiction.
There are fourteen stories in this collection, all varied, some skating very close to other genres. Anuradha Kumar’s The Lamplighter, set in turn-of-the-century Bombay, for instance, is another example of her skill with weaving history and mystery together. Anil Menon’s A Divine Madness is black humour (not really crime fiction, in my opinion, but a wry tongue-in-cheek sci-fi comment on religion). The last story in the collection, Sumit Bardhan’s In the Poisoned Entrails is set in a dystopian world that sounds eerily like our own when it comes to corruption, ambition, and the conscienceless greed for more. It is also familiar-sounding in one other respect: technology (in this case AI) is resulting in crime.
Like In the Poisoned Entrails, several other stories too reflect modern India in its highly-connected, highly-vulnerable form, a country where everyday someone dreams up new ways to use technology to scam the gullible. RV Raman’s King Phisher is (obviously) one of these stories; so is Arnab Ray’s Stride. Nev March’s Out of Mercy, set amongst the Indian diaspora in the US, touches upon the addiction to online gambling (and the desperation underlying it) in a heartbreaking way.
Naturally, given that there are many ways of looking at crime, the anthology is pretty textured. There’s a good deal of variety here: different ways of approaching the topic, different styles and techniques. Manjula Padmanabhan’s The Leopard’s Leap Crime Fiction Workshop uses a writers’ retreat as the setting for a murder, in a darkly humorous way that is at the same time a wryly amusing look at writers themselves. It’s a very different story, say, from Tanuj Solanki’s Crime and Crime, a tale with no dialogue, just great blocks of text—not something I typically like, but highly effective here, in a story of exploitation and crime and conscience.
Crime and Crime is one of my favourite stories in this collection. I liked pretty much all the stories here, but I always end up having some that really stay with me. Among the others that I admired enough to wish I had written it (the greatest mark of my esteem!) are Meeti Shroff-Shah’s superb The Baraat; Salil Desai’s Burden; and RV Raman’s King Phisher.
November 29, 2025
🏵️Have you ever picked up a book thinking you’ll read just one story… and suddenly an hour has passed? That was my experience with "The Hachette Book of Indian Crime Fiction". This crime fiction short story collection is packed with bite-sized crime stories that pull you in from the very first line. The stories are set in ordinary places like libraries, weddings, mountain lodges, small villages, and yet every page hides something dark, clever, and unexpected.
🏵️From plotting revenge on twin brother, to cyber crime expert, to Hindu-Muslim Love Murder case, to psychological twist and guilt to obsession, each story delivers a fresh twist. The best part? The writing style is super beginner-friendly, making this the perfect pick even if you’re new to crime fiction.
🏵️My personal favourites are “King Phisher” by RV Raman, a sharp con tale, and “Murder by a Raised Eyebrow” by Tabish Khair, a fun mix of wit and mystery.
🏵️Though all these stories are mainly written from the perspective of crime fiction but I think they also describe the corruption, the fake promises, the betrayal, the politics etc that we all face in our life.
🏵️Short, suspenseful, and totally binge-worthy!
🏵️From plotting revenge on twin brother, to cyber crime expert, to Hindu-Muslim Love Murder case, to psychological twist and guilt to obsession, each story delivers a fresh twist. The best part? The writing style is super beginner-friendly, making this the perfect pick even if you’re new to crime fiction.
🏵️My personal favourites are “King Phisher” by RV Raman, a sharp con tale, and “Murder by a Raised Eyebrow” by Tabish Khair, a fun mix of wit and mystery.
🏵️Though all these stories are mainly written from the perspective of crime fiction but I think they also describe the corruption, the fake promises, the betrayal, the politics etc that we all face in our life.
🏵️Short, suspenseful, and totally binge-worthy!
November 28, 2025
The Hachette Book of Indian Crime Fiction is a compilation of 14 short stories edited by Tarun K. Saint.
This book brings together sharp, twist-filled crime stories that keep you hooked from the very first page. The stories showcase a variety of crimes — from murders to cybercrimes, scams, and psychological twists. Some stories explore revenge and guilt, while others delve into obsession and trauma.
A couple of stories do not follow a chronological sequence, which felt slightly disorienting. Personally, I loved the story “Baaraat” the most, and “King Phisher” stood out for its choking tension.
The narration in each story is fast-paced, easy to comprehend, and packed with suspense. I really enjoyed my time reading this book. It’s a gripping read perfect for readers who love clever crimes and satisfying twists.
This book brings together sharp, twist-filled crime stories that keep you hooked from the very first page. The stories showcase a variety of crimes — from murders to cybercrimes, scams, and psychological twists. Some stories explore revenge and guilt, while others delve into obsession and trauma.
A couple of stories do not follow a chronological sequence, which felt slightly disorienting. Personally, I loved the story “Baaraat” the most, and “King Phisher” stood out for its choking tension.
The narration in each story is fast-paced, easy to comprehend, and packed with suspense. I really enjoyed my time reading this book. It’s a gripping read perfect for readers who love clever crimes and satisfying twists.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews