E-Paper
HT Picks; New Reads
This week’s pick of interesting reads includes a collection that showcases Indian detective fiction, a police procedural from a Japanese master of the genre, and a graphic novel about AI and threats to humanity
Of red herrings simmered in blood gravy
The first anthology of its kind, The Hachette Book of Indian Detective Fiction compiles more than 30 compelling whodunits, supernatural mysteries, serial murders and absurd crimes spread across two volumes. Through hybrid, self-reflexive and experimental forms of writing (including translations from Bengali and Tamil). This collection invites readers to unravel mysteries with every turn of the page, masterfully showcasing distinctive instances of the genre. Red herrings simmered in blood gravy, served up with family feuds, ancient curses, long–haired lady sleuths and many other typical subcontinental chutneys provide a rare feast for the avid reader of crime fiction! With endpaper artwork by Manjula Padmanabhan, this two volume collection features the work of a range of authors including Satyajit Ray, Ankush Saikia, Meeti Shroff Shah, Rabindranath Tagore, Timeri Murari, Vikram Chandra, Madhulika Liddle and more.*
Detective Kyoichiro Kaga returns
A decade ago, Tokyo Police Detective Kyoichiro Kaga went to collect the ashes of his recently deceased mother. Years before, she ran away from her husband and son without explanation or any further contact, only to die alone in an apartment far away, leaving her estranged son with many unanswered questions.
Now in Tokyo, Michiko Oshitani is found dead many miles from home. Strangled to death, left in the bare apartment rented under a false name by a man who has disappeared without a trace. Oshitani lived far away in Sendai, with no known connection to Tokyo – and neither her family nor friends have any idea why she would have gone there.
Hers is the second strangulation death in that approximate area of Tokyo – the other was a homeless man, killed and his body burned in a tent by the river. As the police search through Oshitani’s past for any clue that might shed some light, one of the detectives reaches out to Detective Kaga for advice. As the case unfolds, an unexpected connective emerges between the murder (or murders) now and the long-ago case of Detective Kaga’s missing mother.
The Final Curtain, one of Keigo Higashino’s most acclaimed mysteries, brings the story of Detective Kaga to a surprising conclusion in a series of rich, surprising twists.*
An urgent story of our time
The founder of an AI start-up at the core of the ChatGPT revolution, is on the verge of selling his technology to a large digital conglomerate when he begins to see and hear things that raise questions about the true motivations of his client. Is this the deal every entrepreneur dream of, or the start of a long and difficult battle that threatens humanity as we know it?
Writer and artist Appupen, the author of Moonward (2009) and co-writer Laurent Daudet, a physics professor at a university in Paris, deliver the most urgent story of our time in all its many dimensions. Exciting, baffling, ethically challenging, it demands engagement, and action.*
*All copy from book flap.
