The Book Case – "Abir Mukherjee and the Beauty of Historical Mysteries"

Hosts: Charlie Gibson & Kate Gibson
Guest: Abir Mukherjee
Release Date: December 11, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode of The Book Case explores historical crime fiction through the lens of acclaimed author Abir Mukherjee and his Wyndham & Banerjee mystery series, set in British-ruled India. Kate and Charlie Gibson share their delight at discovering Mukherjee’s work—even starting with his sixth novel, "The Burning Ground"—and unpack his unique narrative approach, blending sharp wit, inventive character-building, and a nuanced look at colonial history. The heart of the episode features an in-depth interview with Mukherjee, who discusses his personal and cultural motivations, his writing process, and the challenges and joys of illuminating history through gripping mysteries.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Introduction: Falling for the Sixth Book

• Charlie and Kate discuss their surprise at engaging so strongly with a series at the sixth installment.

  • Charlie: “It is a series of novels of two detectives…set in India of the Raj… They’re wonderful mysteries, but so too are they extraordinarily well written.” [02:00]
  • Kate: “The writing is terrific and it’s funny and the dialogue is wonderful. And his world-building of imperialist Calcutta…is amazing.” [02:52]

• Comparison to Other Authors

  • Kate makes a notable connection: if listeners enjoyed their previous recommendation of Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series, they’ll love Mukherjee’s books for their character-driven plots and humor. [03:40]

2. Abir Mukherjee on Finding His Setting and Identity

• Why set the series in imperialist Calcutta?

  • Abir: “To be honest with you, it started off as a search for my own identity… Was I Scottish, Was I Indian, was I Bengali, Was I British, or was I somewhere in between?… We didn’t learn about colonial history at school… I wanted to get to that truth.” [07:04–08:15]

• Nuanced Depiction of History

  • Abir: “Indian history books romanticize it in a different fashion… And the truth is always grey. It’s always somewhere in the middle. And that’s where I sit. I sit in the middle of these two great cultures of India and Britain.” [08:35]

• On Nonviolent Resistance

  • Abir: “That period in history was the world’s first nonviolent freedom struggle...That was the spark for Martin Luther King’s civil rights movement… the template for Nelson Mandela’s struggle… But it started between these two ridiculous people, the British and the Indians, and it started in India.” [09:10–10:20]

3. Character Development and Author's Personal Ties

• Characters as Dual Selves
  • Abir: “These two men are the two sides of my own personality. So Sam is my British half… more cynical… Whereas Suren is my Indian side…my more optimistic side… Unfortunately, he has my terribly skinny Indian legs as well.” [11:28]
  • Abir: “When you sit between cultures, you are an outsider to both. You notice the peculiarities of things in each society. You notice the hypocrisies on both sides.” [11:55]

4. Series Planning Versus Improvisation

• Did Mukherjee always plan a series?

  • Abir: “When I submitted my entry…I wrote a two-page synopsis. And at the end of it, I did say, if this is of interest, this would be the first in a series.” [14:11]
  • On his ambitions: “I thought I could do a book a year, be no problem…not realizing that that’s…31 years.” [14:23]

• How Far the Series Will Go

  • The most recent book is set in 1926—Mukherjee hopes to bring the series up to Indian independence (1947), but isn’t sure he’ll make it: “We have the lowest life expectancy in Europe…I could go at any minute!” [14:43–14:53]
  • Abir: “As long as we’ve got a cup of tea and a keyboard, we’ll see what happens.” [15:46]

5. Switching Narrative Perspectives

• Why shift from a single to dual perspectives?

  • Abir: “After four books, I did feel more confident… I wanted to write Surendranath’s point of view also. I felt I needed to. Otherwise, I was just giving a one-sided story. My objective…was to provide a balance.” [16:49–17:16]

• Will the dual perspectives continue?

  • “I have no idea what’s going to happen next… I would like to have both voices because I think it’s important.” [17:44]

6. On Writing Process and Research

• Writing process: chaotic or planned?

  • Abir (on point-of-view alternation): “Kate, that’s a great question. You’ve known me for 23 minutes now. What do you think my process is?...No, it’s whatever feels…The story has to move in tandem…Otherwise I’ll forget what I’ve done and I will lose the thread.” [18:17–19:03]
  • On continuity errors: “At the end of the third book…Sam has a bit of an opium problem, which he gets rid of…and then when I wrote book four, I’d forgotten I’d done this and I send him to a Hindu ashram. It’s only at the edit stage…somebody points out that I’ve sent him to completely the wrong place.” [19:22]

• On Research and Authenticity

  • Abir: “Doing the research is very important to me. And I try and be there on the ground. But really I’m blessed because my parents are from that city. I understand the culture to a degree. I understand the language, I understand the humor. And if you have these advantages, it’s much easier to describe a place and a time.” [20:14]
  • On Calcutta’s richness: “If I were to tell you that Calcutta has more theaters than New York and London put together, that would surprise you…It’s a city of people who pretend to work for a living, knock off early at 4:30 and go to their poetry club or their art club to write really bad poetry or do amateur dramatics. It’s that sort of place. Everyone’s a poet or an artist or a philosopher. And I love that about it.” [21:12–22:10]

7. Editing, Learning, and Community

• Abir shares how other writers (Lee Child, James Patterson, Mick Herron, Val McDermid) influenced his latest standalone, "Hunted":
  • “I sent a draft…to Lee Child, to James Patterson, to Mick Herron, to Val McDermid…They all came back with advice… I did as much as I could…the book won [awards]…and they didn’t. That’s doubly funny, isn’t it? I owe it to them, though.” [22:56–24:02]

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

On Calcutta:

"Calcutta. It was impossible to love it unless you were a sadist of some sort of impossible, that is, right up until the moment you realized you could no longer live anywhere else...Calcutta was like the splinter that pierced your flesh...Calcutta was a fever dream, a melange of the infernal and the angelic..."
— Abir Mukherjee, reading from his book [04:38]

On Identity and Colonialism:

“We didn’t learn about colonial history at school… The problem is our history books don’t tell the truth. And funnily enough, neither do the Indian history books.”
— Abir Mukherjee [08:00–08:30]

On Character as Heart of Series:

"Why do we come back to series?...Because I'm in love with the characters...It doesn’t matter what the plot is. I've fallen in love with these individuals...We love character, right. We're not that keen on cannibalism...But we love character."
— Abir Mukherjee [28:33]

Humor/Banter:

"You are the only adult that I know that has multiple pairs of dealy boppers…and that’s kind of my…dignity is never really been that huge in my book."
— Kate Gibson [01:20–01:37]

On Writing Chaos:

"Luck, flaw, and the intervention of divine powers is how I decide."
— Abir Mukherjee [19:56]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:00–04:13] Charlie and Kate’s initial reactions to discovering Mukherjee’s books; comparison to Richard Osman.
• [04:38] Mukherjee reads a vivid passage about Calcutta.
• [07:04–10:42] Mukherjee on why he writes about colonial Calcutta and themes of identity.
• [11:10–12:59] Characters as reflections of self; the relationship between colonizer and colonized.
• [13:19–15:06] How the Wyndham & Banerjee series was envisioned and how far it may go.
• [15:47–17:44] Evolution of narrative perspective; commitment to balanced viewpoints.
• [18:06–19:47] Insights into freelance writing process, planning, and humorous admissions of mistakes.
• [20:14–22:10] The challenge of research and representing Calcutta authentically.
• [24:03–24:46] Reflections on community and mutual support among thriller writers.
• [26:32–29:47] Rapid fire Q&A – influences, writing habits, character vs. plot debates.
• [32:56] Abir’s advice to writers, via Walter Mosley: “If you want to write, you should read. If you want to write well, you should read poetry.”

Episode Close: Reflections

• Charlie and Kate conclude by reflecting on Mukherjee’s wit, candor, and ability to illuminate the ironies and complexities of imperialism in a highly entertaining manner.

  • Charlie: “He is as delightful a talker as he is a writer.” [30:15]
  • Kate: “He does a brilliant job…of capturing all of the aspects of imperialism that I had never thought about before.” [31:08]

• A final piece of advice via Abir and Walter Mosley:

  "If you want to write, you should read. If you want to write well, you should read poetry." [32:56]

Recommended for listeners/readers: Those who love character-rich crime fiction, historical mysteries, witty dialogue, and nuanced explorations of identity and culture; fans of Richard Osman’s and Denise Mina’s novels.