The long and varied history of the crime
novel has witnessed crime fighters of every shape, size and disposition,
ranging from a fastidious little Francophone Belgian whose head was ‘exactly
the shape of an egg’ to a ‘rotund, badly-dressed Catholic priest’. Both Poirot
and Father Brown are established stars in the literary firmament, but in my
debut novel The Unexpected Inheritance of
Inspector Chopra, Mumbai police Inspector Ashwin Chopra - forced into early
retirement and unable to relinquish the final case of his career – the death of
a poor local boy - is confronted by the somewhat surreal dilemma of taking in a
baby elephant, sent to him by his enigmatic uncle. The elephant – one-year-old
Ganesha - soon proves to be a more than useful ally as Chopra sets off to
tackle the case, and thus becomes the latest in a long line of colourful crime
fighters to have graced the genre.
Fans of the novel have asked me why I chose
an elephant as Chopra’s sidekick. Aside from the fact that I am passionate
about these amazing animals, there are some very practical reasons why a pachyderm
makes a more-than-competent crime-fighter.
Elephants are supremely intelligent
creatures, one of just a few who are legitimately classified as being ‘self-aware’
(meaning that, at the least, they pass the ‘mirror test’). They also possess
excellent memories, a trait that has been well documented, and amply employed
by such renowned detectives as Inspector Morse – elephants really do not forget.
Elephants are also known for their complex social interactions and ability to
feel empathy. As a writer this emotional range is important to me – part of the
charm of my series (as readers have expressed to me) lies in the relationship
that gradually develops between the somewhat rigid and stiff-shelled Chopra and
the, at first, despondent infant elephant that has been vouchsafed to his care.
Of course, we mustn’t forget that Ganesha is
a child and like all children skates along on an ocean of emotional turbulence,
which provides plenty of scope for melodrama. For instance, he is endowed with
an unbridled sense of curiosity. As we shall see, this occasionally leads him
into trouble, at which point his other singular and endearing quality will
stand him in good stead – courage.
And in the city of Mumbai Chopra and Ganesha
will require courage in spades. Like most Indian metropolises Mumbai is facing
a cultural onslaught from westernisation – which brings both good and bad, as I
describe in my novel. Mumbai is the city of dreams. People come to Mumbai to
make their fortune, to become famous on the sets of the world’s most prolific
movie industry, to start micro-businesses in the city’s slums.
But where there are dreams there are also
nightmares.
Chopra stands on the shadow line between old
and new India. Old India is tradition, religion, the caste system, ubiquitous poverty;
new India is wealth, skyscrapers and western sensibilities eroding the ancient way
of life. The sights, sounds, smells, and even tastes of this modern India flesh
out my canvas as Chopra and Ganesha pursue an exotic gallery of villains and evildoers.
It has been tremendous fun writing these novels,
imbuing them with the warmth and colour of India from the ten years I lived
there. Finding time from my job at University College London’s Department of
Security and Crime Science has been tricky – but I’m an insomniac so I guess
there is a silver lining to sleepless nights after all!
One questions remains to be answered . . . Do
elephants really love chocolate?
Elephants are herbivores and as such their
diet consists of bark, grass, shoots, leaves, and fruit. But urban elephants –
often faced with lean pickings – have been known to widen their palates in the
pursuit of survival. And besides, every crime-fighter needs an addiction. Holmes
had his morphine, John Rebus has his whisky. Is it so hard to accept that our
crime-busting little elephant needs his chocolate fix before embarking on
another gruelling day on the mean streets of Mumbai?
After all, of all places in this world, India
is where the impossible becomes merely improbable – such as the existence of a
very gifted, crime-fighting, chocoholic baby elephant.
More information about the author and his writing
can be found on his website or you can
follow him on Twitter @VaseemKhanUK and find him on Facebook.
The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra
On the day he retires, Inspector Ashwin Chopra inherits two unexpected mysteries. The first is the case of a drowned boy, whose suspicious death no one seems to want solved. And the second is a baby elephant. As his search for clues takes him across the teeming city of Mumbai, from its grand high rises to its sprawling slums and deep into its murky underworld, Chopra begins to suspect that there may be a great deal more to both his last case and his new ward than he thought. And he soon learns that when the going gets tough, a determined elephant may be exactly what an honest man needs...
The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra
On the day he retires, Inspector Ashwin Chopra inherits two unexpected mysteries. The first is the case of a drowned boy, whose suspicious death no one seems to want solved. And the second is a baby elephant. As his search for clues takes him across the teeming city of Mumbai, from its grand high rises to its sprawling slums and deep into its murky underworld, Chopra begins to suspect that there may be a great deal more to both his last case and his new ward than he thought. And he soon learns that when the going gets tough, a determined elephant may be exactly what an honest man needs...
The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra by Vaseem Khan is published on 13 August 2015 (£12.99 Mulholland Books)
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