1) So, who are you and what have you written?
My name’s Ankush Saikia, and I’m a 40-year-old Indian author, based in Shillong in North-East India. I’ve written a couple of crime and thriller novels, including the Detective Arjun Arora series published by Penguin Random House India. Check out my website, HERE, plus follow me on instagram, on Twitter as @ankushsaikia and/or LIKE my page on Facebook.
2) Why do you write crime fiction?
I write crime fiction I think because of my interest in the darker side of human
existence … in people who do not always make the right choices in life.
3) What ‘informs’ your crime writing?
The two “locations” for my books so far have been North-East India, where I grew up, and Delhi, where I spent more than a decade studying and then working. My crime writing set in these two areas is concerned with the social dynamics in a diverse country such as India more than anything else, in the various layers of society that exist here.
4) What’s your usual writing routine?
I try and write when I can, mostly for a few hours in the morning. Having a routine always helps.
5) Which crime book do you wish YOU’D written, and why?
Graham Greene’s The Quiet American, which though more of a political thriller, also has elements of a crime novel in it — I admire the economy of the book more than anything else, one of the best examples of less being more.
