Books by Vaseem Khan
“The Girl in Cell A by Vaseem Khan is closer to a traditional whodunnit than a lot of the books on this shortlist, in that you’re wondering who committed a crime, start suspecting people, and in the end there’s a plot twist. That said, there’s violence, there’s incest; this is not a cozy mystery. It’s about a woman who was imprisoned as a girl, accused of a crime she doesn’t remember committing. She lived in a god-fearing community in the US, with a dominant family – for whom her mother was the housekeeper. The book charts her return to find out what happened after she gets out of prison and the resistance she faces from local townspeople.” Read more...
The Best Crime Fiction: The 2026 Gold Dagger Shortlist
Sophie Roell, Journalist
“As newly independent India celebrates the start of the new decade, Inspector Persis Wadia is consigned to the midnight shift in the basement of Malabar House. After six months on the force, she remains India’s only female police detective and — facing both overt and more subtle prejudice — is part of the city’s unit of mistrusted and sidelined officers. When she gets the call about the murder of a prominent English diplomat at his own New Year’s party, she is determined to solve the case, never mind all the feathers she has to ruffle by offending the powerful guests.” Read more...
Tuva Kahrs, Five Books Editor
The Lost Man of Bombay
by Vaseem Khan
☆ Shortlisted for the 2022 CWA Gold Dagger
The Lost Man of Bombay is the third book in Vaseem Khan's Malabar House series, a set of historical mysteries set in post-independence India. It has echoes of Seven Years in Tibet as well as Mick Herron's Slough House series. The main protagonist is Persis, the first and only female detective to have qualified for the Indian Police Service.
Interviews where books by Vaseem Khan were recommended
Best Mystery Books of 2023
As a year for mystery books, 2023 was definitely eclectic, with historical mysteries, mysteries that could be filed as supernatural horror, and the Edgar award for best novel going to the story of a serial killer on death row. The year also saw the publication of Murder in the Family by Cara Hunter, which experiments with different formats to engage the reader.
Historical Mystery Novels, recommended by Tuva Kahrs
Do you enjoy being immersed in the detail of a well-observed historical novel, or gripped by the mystery of a detective story? Historical mysteries combine the best of both. From 1st century Rome to Victorian London, from Tang dynasty China to 20th century Bombay, our contributing editor Tuva Kahrs brings you a crop of well-researched mysteries that will transport you to different times and places.
The Best Crime Fiction: The 2026 Gold Dagger Shortlist, recommended by Sophie Roell
If you enjoy crime fiction, there can be a bewildering array of books to choose from. Fortunately, the UK has the Dagger Awards, awarded by the Crime Writers’ Association to standout books in the genre. The ‘Gold Dagger’ is given for the best crime novel by an author of any nationality, originally written in English and first published in the UK. Five Books editor Sophie Roell runs us through the six books that made this year’s shortlist.
