I am thrilled to have a quickie with my lovely, super busy, super talented mate Vaseem Khan.
Vaseem Khan is a British writer, author of the Baby Ganesh Detective Agency novels – a series of crime novels set in India–featuring retired Mumbai police Inspector Ashwin Chopra and his sidekick, a baby elephant named Ganesha.
Previously Khan won a Shamus Award and the Eastern Eye’s Arts Culture & Theatre Awards for Literature. Khan is also the author of the Malabar House crime novels, beginning with Midnight at Malabar House (2020), set in 1950s India and introducing India’s first female police detective working with an English forensic scientist.
In Oct 2025, Quantum of Menace by Khan was published. This is the first in a series of small town mysteries featuring Q from the James Bond franchise, authorised by the Ian Fleming estate.**
**thanks to Wikipedia for an abridged version of Vaseem’s career – but you can read more on his website and sign up for his newletter here
What is the title of your new book and the date of publication?
THE EDGE OF DARKNESS, out 22 January 2026
Please describe your new book in 5 words
Locked room mystery, India 1951
The last 5 star book you read and would recommend
A Sociopath’s Guide to A Successful Marriage by M.K. Oliver (out in 2026)
What is the last text or message you have received?
A ranty one from a writer friend having a bad day. He ended with ‘They’re all bastards.’ I won’t explain who the ‘they’ are in this scenario. Let’s leave it to your imagination…
What is your secret talent?
I am the cricket whisperer. I can talk to crap cricket players and tell them why they’re so crap at cricket. This doesn’t make them any better but it does make me feel a bit better about my own limited cricketing abilities. Does this make me a bad person?
What’s the one product you couldn’t live without?
My Donnie Darko creepy murder rabbit costume. Do I really have one of these? Maybe I do. Maybe I don’t. (And if you don’t know what this is, Google it. Then imagine me turning up on your doorstep dressed in one. Which I will do if you don’t read my books.)
What is the weirdest thing in your Google search history?
Easier to ask what isn’t weird in my search history. I’m a crime writer so I look at a lot of murdery stuff. So I suppose it’s actually stranger when I look at normal stuff. Such as: what sort of negligees were women wearing in 1950s India? (Don’t roll your eyes! It wasn’t that sort of site. I simply needed to know for my 1950s India set Malabar House historical crime novels – The Edge of Darkness is the sixth in the series – the lead protagonist is India’s first female police detective. Get your minds out of the gutter!)
What is one piece of advice you wished you’d seriously taken?
“Don’t bury that body in your local allotment – some Alan Titchmarsh wannabe will accidentally dig it up.”
Do you have any phobias or superstitions?
I play a lot of cricket and when I score runs (which is rare) I don’t like to wash my cricket undershorts for fear of washing out the luck. So, in theory, they could get pretty ripe. Luckily I don’t often make runs two matches in a row.
What’s the most embarrassing moment you’ve ever had in public?
I write a second series of small town murder mysteries featuring Q from the James Bond franchise, beginning with Quantum of Menace (2025). At a recent event promoting the book, I dressed as Sean Connery in Dr No, in a Nehru jacket. Someone asked me if I was Rishi Sunak. I mean, WTF!
What are your pet peeves and what are YOUR worst habits?
I can’t stand people who listen to loud music on public transport. I mean, feck off with your stupid hip hop techno garage ballacks. And that’s just the pensioners.
Worst habit? I like to do that thing that people do in job interviews when they pretend that they have a bad habit but which is really a massive humblebrag good habit in disguise. Eg. My worst habit is that I sometimes work too hard. No, you stupid knob, your worst habit is that you’re an idiot who can’t follow simple instructions… Anyway, my worst habit is that sometimes I care too much… No, really, it is!
How would your closest friends describe you?
Ah, so you’re assuming I have close friends. Or any friends. Well, let’s pretend that I do. I’m sure they’d say: “That Vas! What a gem, what an absolute corker of a human being! Always willing to help little old ladies across the street, etc.” Which is true, unless they’re playing loud music in which case I’ll gladly help them into oncoming traffic…. OK. So I can probably find one friend who would say “Vas loves books and loves spreading the book love.”
