My Backstory

After a corporate career spanning four decades and as many continents, I’ve moved away from full time roles to pursue other interests. I now serve as an independent director on company boards and write. In my earlier avatar, I had advised companies, banks, regulators, governments, etc. on various matters.

Tired of extensive physical travel, I now prefer less punishing mental excursions into fictional worlds of my own creation.

About My Corporate Thrillers

Surely, there must be men like Professor Moriarty in corporate India. They may not be such intellectual colossuses or consummate masters, but they would share some key traits with him – wile, ingenuity, drive and utter ruthlessness. And they would understand the psychology of temptation.

What kind of schemes would such men device? That is the question I seek to answer through my novels.

Apart from bringing in truckloads of money, these schemes would have to satisfy the fabled professor’s taste for elegant, water-tight designs; designs that ride on the motivations and vulnerabilities of intelligent but weak-minded men. My antagonists may not have Moriarty’s guile or panache, and my detectives may be intellectual pygmies before Holmes. Nevertheless, I have taken a shot (four shots, actually) at crafting credible stories of intelligent crimes in corporate India. Each of my four novels is set in a different industry.

About My Whodunits

After four corporate thrillers, I turned to writing a series of murder mysteries (whodunits) with a new protagonist (Harith Athreya). I’ve tried to model my whodunits on the Golden Age Mysteries, while keeping them current with modern technology like mobile phones. And, as is the case with all my writing, I eschew vulgarity and profanity so that my stories are appropriate for readers of all ages. The only exception is the rare cuss-word that is used as an intensifier for emphasis.

Science Fiction

And most recently, I am trying my hand at science fiction. 2080: The Lattice is my first foray into this genre and is set in a world where mankind is addicted to AI. Unfortunately, the AI has become deeply biased, even prejudiced. Additionally, the internet has evolved to an extent where it carries all five senses perfectly, making virtual presence undistinguishable from physical reality.

Meanwhile, I am also experimenting with short stories (crime) set in contemporary India. Some of them are available on Amazon.

The list of my full-length novels so far:

Fraudster
Insider
Saboteur
Conspirator
A Will to Kill
A Dire Isle / Grave Intentions
Praying Mantis
The Last Resort
2080: The Lattice

Articles and Interviews:

An article on Crimereads

Thin Lines – Corporate Dossier (PDF)
Castles of Sand: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow (PDF)
Corporate Criminal – Asian Age (PDF)
Crime Visits the Corporate Corridors (PDF)
Corporate India is Ideal for Crime Fiction

Writersmelon
Reader’s Muse
BookBlog
Mahabore
Bit All Moonshine
So Many Books So Little Time
Books News India
Paperblog

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Tales from corporate India