Spellbinding thriller that’s won two biggest gongs in crime writing | Books | Entertainment

Abir Mukherjee is marvelling at how his gripping thriller about the rise of political extremism, set against the backdrop of a highly divisive US election and featuring an assassination bid on a presidential candidate, predicted real-life events. “I wanted to highlight what was happening in that election – or what I imagined would be happening,” he explains. “Unfortunately, so much of that has come true and that’s partly why the book resonates. Given my powers of prognostication, maybe next time I’ll write a book about an author who wins the lottery!”

The book he began in 2019 and spent a “tough” four years writing, Hunted, came full circle on Thursday night when it was crowned Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year at the Old Swan Hotel in Harrogate. It was his fourth time on its shortlist.

Speaking at the world-famous festival, supported by the Express, Abir, 51 – previously best known for his Raj-era, Calcutta-set Wyndham and Banerjee crime novels – admitted writing Hunted had been a huge risk. “I’d written five books and I’d had these two voices in my head for eight or nine years, and I wanted to do something different,” he continues.

“All my books tend to spring from a position of anger – when there’s something I need to write about and get off my chest. I’ve generally done that through allegory because those previous books have been set in the past. But this issue of radicalisation was something that I thought was urgent and contemporary, and I wanted to write about it as a warning.”

However, the former City accountant admitted: “I had my spreadsheet about how long I could last without a proper job and had it down as two years. “There were times I thought I might have to take up another job at some point but – touch wood – it’s been worth it.”

Hunted would eventually become the first standalone thriller from the London-born, Glasgow-raised author, whose parents Satyen and Suchitra – a former Miss Calcutta – came to Britain from India in the 1960s. Dubbed the “Godfather of Anglo-Asian crime writing” by the Daily Express, and a standard-bearer for diversity in storytelling, Abir admits: “It was a very, very difficult process. After about three years of writing this, I didn’t know if it was any good.

“So I sent an early manuscript to the Avengers of crime fiction; Lee Child, Steve Cavanagh, Val McDermid, Mick Herron and Ruth Ware, among others. And I just said, ‘I don’t know this is any good, you guys are the experts, can you help me?’

“They all came back with advice in different ways. Ruth pointed out a couple of things that were factually wrong and Auntie Val just ‘mugged’ me. She was like, ‘Change this, change that. This doesn’t work. Why do you say this?’”

The advice helped Abir get his book over the line and earlier this year it won the Crime & Thriller Book of the Year at the British Book Awards. Now having won the Theakston gong, his risk-taking has been amply rewarded. The Washington Post named Hunted one of the top ten thrillers in America last year.

“I began this book back in 2019-2020 thinking about my fears for the world, namely the rise of populism, the rise in extremism on all sides,” he says. “It started off as a warning against going from tolerance to extremism and anger. And it’s a fictional story about two parents trying to find their kids who have been radicalised, who’ve got involved in a conspiracy before the last US election.”

Accordingly, a week before the US presidential elections, a bomb goes off in a shopping mall in LA. On the other side of the Atlantic, armed police arrest Sajid Khan. His daughter Aliyah entered America with the suicide bomber and is now missing.

Then a woman called Carrie turns up and claims Aliyah is with her son Greg. She thinks she knows where they could be, sparking a race against time to save the kids from themselves and the voices of extremism that have indoctrinated them. Hunted came out in May last year, two months before a shooter fired eight rounds at now 47th US President Donald Trump from a building opposite a massive open air rally in Pennsylvania, before being killed by police.

“It was shocking, but you could see a path to it. You can see what is happening in our democracies,” Abir says. “America is an extreme example of it, but we’re seeing the anger, the weaponisation of debate, here in the UK too. We’ve seen politicians murdered here. So you could draw a line to what was going to happen.

“When we get to a point where we vilify our opposition as the devil incarnate, actions like that take on a different view. When we do that, we make it all right to contemplate murder. So while it came as a shock, in a way it’s a logical extension of what’s been happening and that’s what we need to step away from.

“We need to get away from this vilification, this toxification – we need to step back and remember that we are all on the same side. There are bigger issues out there.” The author, who lives in Surrey with his wife Sonal and their two children, blames in part a “society where our values have changed”.

“We’re in a post-industrial society where not just the working classes, but the middle classes feel under threat,” he continues.

“Jobs which a decade ago would have been safe are now at risk and, when people are threatened, they get scared, and fear leads to anger. I know I sound like Yoda from Star Wars, but it’s when people are scared for their own position, that’s when we need someone to blame.”

One of Abir’s new central characters is Shreya Mistry, an FBI agent who is neurodivergent. She is a homage to Mukherjee’s eldest son, who is on the autism spectrum. Sitting in the Old Swan Hotel on Friday, Abir spoke of his pride in winning the prestigious Theakston beer barrel.

“It’s the pinnacle. I came to this festival for the first time 10 years ago. It’s always been a dream. I never at the beginning thought that I could make it and, after missing out quite a few times, you start to think, ‘Well, am I ever gonna reach that point?’

“And I’ve been extremely fortunate that the judges and the readers like the book. So it feels like a milestone. If this inspires people from backgrounds like mine, or others, to say, ‘You know what, I might give writing a shot’, that would be brilliant. That’s what I want. I’ve spent 10 years in this business now. I would like to spend the next 10 years opening doors.

“I feel I’m more comfortable in my skin. I’m more comfortable with who I am. It’s made me realise how special being British is.”

And there’s also good news for fans of Abir’s Wyndham and Banerjee series. The first in the series for five years – The Burning Grounds – is due out in November.

“Its 1926, Wyndham and Banerjee are back together and the body of a wealthy Indian is found murdered in the burning groundsin Calcutta – where people are cremated,” he says. “It looks like a robbery but there’s a lot more going on. A world-renowned actress has just arrived in Calcutta. Are these things linked? And has Sam [Wyndham] got a new love interest?”

Readers will have to wait to find out. He’s currently working on another standalone, provisionally titled The Pinnacle, about an A-list American actor – “think George Clooney” – who marries India’s Bollywood sweetheart before she’s suddenly murdered in Mumbai. “He’s the prime suspect – what do you do when 1.4 billion Indians hate you?” Abir adds.

We can’t wait to find out.

• Hunted by Abir Mukherjee (Vintage, £9.99) is out now