Murderous Empire: from Bradford to Bombay – Online

Tickets: Free
Time: 7:30pm - 8:30pm
(12+)

Bestselling crime authors Vaseem Khan and Amit Dhand are novelists whose work spans Britain and India. In this online session, they will discuss their books and examine the relationship between these two countries, covering the critical period of Indian history just before and after Independence and examining how the advent of Partition helped shape the modern India that we know today. They will also discuss the emergence of ‘Asian Noir’.

Vaseem Khan is the author of two crime series set in India, the Baby Ganesh Agency series set in modern Mumbai, and the Malabar House historical crime novels set in 1950s Bombay. His first book, The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra, was a Times bestseller; Midnight at Malabar House, the first in his historical crime series, is shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger 2021. His latest book is The Dying Day, about the theft of a 600-year-old copy of Dante’s The Divine Comedy. Vaseem was born in England, but spent a decade working in India. Since 2006 he has worked at University College London for the Department of Security and Crime Science.

AA Dhand was raised in Bradford, where he still works as a pharmacist. The history, diversity and darkness of the city have inspired his bestselling Detective Harry Virdee novels. In 2016, his debut Streets of Darkness (Luther meets The Wire) was released to critical acclaim and he is currently working with a UK broadcaster to develop a TV adaptation. This was followed by Girl Zero, City of Sinners and One Way Out. His latest standalone novel The Blood Divide is a page-turning thriller in which a Sikh shopkeeper with a criminal record and a Muslim medical student from a wealthy family find themselves on the run together.