Crime
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Murder at the Writers’ Retreat
Niladri Ghosh One The snow-capped peaks of the lower Himalayas glittered like shattered glass under a late October sun as the authors began arriving one by one at The Elmswood Literary Retreat, a secluded luxury property perched above the sleepy town of Mashobra. Surrounded by deodar forests and mountain silence, the Elmswood looked like it…
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The Seventh Morning
Aditya Karnik Shadows at Dawn The sun hadn’t risen yet, but the mist already draped over the ancient stone temple like a shroud. Birds refused to sing. In the village of Chittakere, Karnataka, morning was no longer a time of peace—it was a countdown to death. Detective Prasant Sharma stepped out of the jeep, his…
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The Vanishing of Viraj Mehta
Chapter 1: It was the sort of evening that wrapped Mumbai in a damp silence—one of those monsoon nights when the rain doesn’t roar, but hisses steadily, like a whisper of secrets meant to be hidden. The streetlights near Colaba Causeway flickered through the drizzle, casting shimmering reflections across the wet tarmac. Viraj Mehta, the…
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The Last Wave at Palolem
Vivaan Sharma The Body on the Shore The waves crashed softly against the rocks, their rhythm almost meditative under the hazy early morning sun. Palolem Beach was just beginning to wake—fishermen pulling in their nets, yoga teachers arranging mats on the sand, tourists stretching and sipping on bitter black coffee from the shacks. And then…
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Echoes of Teesta Villa
Maitreyee Basu Chapter 1: The Blood on the Floorboards The monsoon clouds had just begun to roll over Kalimpong’s forested ridges when Dr. Arjun Roy’s taxi took the final bend toward Teesta Villa. The road, snaking through damp pine groves and moss-streaked colonial fences, looked like a forgotten memory. Arjun watched from behind fogged…
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The Last Case of Inspector Rao
Rajiv Deshmukh Chapter 1: Thirteen Days Inspector Devendra Rao stared at the brass nameplate on his desk as if it were a stranger. The letters gleamed in the late afternoon sun—bold, authoritative, and now irrelevant. “Inspector D. Rao – Crime Branch.” Thirteen days. That’s all that remained before this title would be reduced to a…
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The Last Witness
Aditya Nandan. Part 1: The Opening Argument The judge’s gavel landed with a thud, cutting through the low murmur of the packed Delhi courtroom. Justice Arunabh Sen, silver-haired and unsmiling, adjusted his glasses and surveyed the room with the calm of a man who had seen too much and believed too little. “This court is…
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The Alipore Ledger
Ishaan Roychowdhury 1 It started on a Wednesday, just as the first rains of June swept across the city like a waking god shaking off centuries of sleep, drenching Alipore’s colonial bungalows and whispering down the serpentine lanes that remembered secrets better than people did. ACP Ira Basu stood beneath the broken awning of the…
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The Last Passenger
1 The rain hadn’t stopped in twelve hours. It came down in long, dirty sheets, soaking the streets of Mumbai in a miserable, sticky silence. Neon signs flickered through misty glass. Puddles pooled over cracked footpaths. And somewhere between the dripping lamp-posts of Andheri East and the rust-red gates of Lokhandwala, a yellow-black Premier Padmini…
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The Kalighat Murders
Ritam Sen The Body by the Ghat The tram squealed as it curved past the Kalighat temple gates, the clattering wheels echoing through the alleyways still soaked from last night’s drizzle. The city was stirring — morning prayers floated out from open windows, chai stalls hissed to life, and vendors set up shop like they…
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The Howrah Hunting
Aritra Mukherjee Chapter 1: It was a sultry April morning in Kolkata, the kind where the air feels heavy enough to drown in, thick with humidity, sweat, and the dull weight of unspoken things. The city, always loud and unapologetically alive, had barely opened its sleepy eyes when the scream echoed along the concrete ribs…
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Stardust and Shadows
Mira Devika The Girl Who Dreamed in Technicolor Aarya Vardhan arrived in Mumbai on a humid June afternoon, the kind where the sky smelt of wet rust and ambition. Dadar station was a swarm of people—hawkers shouting, suitcases clattering, children crying. She stepped off the train in worn jeans, a cotton kurta, and sneakers that…