Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1973
WEBSITE: https://vaseemkhan.com/
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY: British
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: no2015153918
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/no2015153918
HEADING: Khan, Vaseem, 1973-
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010 __ |a no2015153918
035 __ |a (OCoLC)oca10323299
040 __ |a IlMpPL |b eng |e rda |c IlMpPL |d DLC
053 _0 |a PR6111.H3635
100 1_ |a Khan, Vaseem, |d 1973-
370 __ |c U.K. |e London, England
372 __ |a Crime writing |2 lcsh
375 __ |a male
377 __ |a eng
670 __ |a Khan, V. The unexpected inheritance of Inspector Chopra, 2015: |b title page (Vaseem Khan) page 297, about the author (Vaseem Khan; in 1997 when he arrived in India to work as a management consultant; returned to the UK in 2006 and now works at University College London for the Department of Security and Crime Science)
670 __ |a Author’s web site, November 17, 2015: |b (Vaseem Khan; born in London in 1973; my Baby Ganesh series of light-hearted crime novels; Bachelors degree in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics) |u http://vaseemkhan.com/profile/
PERSONAL
Born 1973, in London, England.
EDUCATION:London School of Economics, bachelor’s degree.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Management consultant, 1997-2005; University College London, Department of Security and Crime Science, 2006—.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Vaseem Khan writes light-hearted crime novels in the “Baby Ganesh Agency Investigation” series. Born in London, England, in 1973, he first saw an elephant walking down the street in Mumbai, India, when he went to the country in 1997 to work as a management consultant for a chain of environmentally friendly hotels. The unusual sight of the elephant was the inspiration for his novels featuring a detective and his sidekick, a baby elephant. Khan returned to London in 2006 to work at University College London for the Department of Security and Crime Science. He holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance from the London School of Economics.
The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra
Khan published his first novel, The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra: A Baby Ganesh Agency Investigation, in 2015. In the story, heart disease has forced Inspector Ashwin Chopra to retire, but on his last day, the death of a boy found in a puddle spurs him to solve one more case, especially since his superior and his successor have no interest in investigating. The boy was found to have alcohol and barbiturates in his system, but that fact does not seem to answer any questions about the boy’s death. Chopra also learns he has inherited a baby elephant from his enigmatic uncle. While the little pachyderm is at first listless, the animal, whom he names Baby Ganesh, after the Hindu god, perks up when Chopra brings him along on his investigations. In fact, the elephant has an uncanny knack for surveillance.
In an interview with Caroline Sanderson online at Bookseller, Khan explained his love for elephants: “They are just such intelligent creatures, and closely related to human beings in terms of their social structures. … They are very emotional creatures too.” A writer in Publishers Weekly commented: “Khan’s affection for Mumbai and its residents adds to the novel’s charm,” although Khan should be more careful getting some facts right about the city’s culture.
The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown
Khan’s next book is the 2016 novel The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown. Inspector Chopra and his sidekick little elephant, Baby Ganesh, are on the case of the stolen Koh-i-Noor diamond. Chopra was in charge of a security team guarding the collection of British Crown Jewels at the Prince of Wales Museum, a collection that contained the diamond. After smoke fills the museum, causing everyone to lose consciousness, the diamond is stolen right from under Chopra’s nose. After the theft Chopra is determined to find out who did it and how to get the diamond back.
In Publishers Weekly, a contributor called the book a winning second installment in the Baby Ganesh series that smoothly “combines an affable lead, a seemingly impossible crime, and an endearing and highly unusual sidekick.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, June 13, 2016, review of The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown, p. 78.
ONLINE
Bookseller, http://www.thebookseller.com/ (May 8, 2015), Caroline Sanderson, author interview.
Publishers Weekly Online, http://www.publishersweekly.com/ (April 8, 2017), review of The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra.
Vaseem Khan Home Page, https://vaseemkhan.com (April 8, 2017), author profile.
Profile
I first saw an elephant lumbering down the middle of the road in 1997 when I arrived in the city of Mumbai, India to work as a management consultant. It was the most unusual sight Vaseem Khan author picI had ever encountered and served as the inspiration behind my Baby Ganesh series of light-hearted crime novels. I was born in London in 1973, went on to gain a Bachelors degree in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics, before spending a decade on the subcontinent helping one of India’s premier hotel groups establish a chain of five-star environmentally friendly ‘ecotels’ around the country. I returned to the UK in 2006 and have since worked at University College London for the Department of Security and Crime Science where I am continually amazed at the way modern science is being used to tackle crime. Elephants are third on my list of passions, first and second being great literature and cricket, not always in that order.
“Absolutely charming and a thoroughly absorbing read” by Mike Craven, crime author. (See full review and 25 questions with Vaseem Khan on his blog here)
A bit more about my job …
Crime science is an approach to crime prevention, reduction and detection that attempts to use science from a range of disciplines – both engineering sciences and social sciences – to tackle crime.
I consider myself lucky to be surrounded by brilliant colleagues all working on crime and security topics ranging from new forensic science techniques to developing the next generation of cyber-security measures. My role involves managing large-scale research projects. I spend a lot of time with academic colleagues and partners from the worlds of policing and security, as we seek to bring that research into the public domain.
And a little plug for my department …
The UCL Department of Security and Crime Science is the first university department in the world devoted specifically to reducing crime and other risks to personal and national security. It does this through teaching, research, public policy analysis and by the dissemination of evidence-based information on crime reduction and security enhancement. The department brings together politicians, scientists, designers and practitioners to examine patterns in crime and security threats, and to find practical methods to disrupt these patterns. The department’s mission is to change policy and practice. In the last Research Assessment Exercise (RAE 2015) 100% of the department’s research activity was judged to have world-leading impact, placing the department joint-1st out of 62 departments around the UK in the relevant unit of assessment.
Vaseem Khan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Author Vaseem Khan
Author Vaseem Khan
Vaseem Khan[1] (born 1973) is a British writer, author of the Baby Ganesh Detective Agency novels[2] – a series of crime novels set in India – featuring retired Mumbai police Inspector Ashwin Chopra and his sidekick, a baby elephant named Ganesha. The first book in the series is entitled The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra and was published in August 2015. It went on to become a Times bestseller. Vaseem has stated that his objective with this series was to take readers to the heart of modern India to give them an idea of what India “looks like, feels like, sounds like, smells like, even tastes like”.[3]
Contents [hide]
1 Biography
2 Works
3 Personal life
4 Bibliography
5 References
Biography[edit]
Khan was born in the London Borough of Newham, studied at the Coopers’ Company and Coborn School in Upminster, Havering, did A-Levels at Newham College, before studying Accounting and Finance at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He subsequently spent a decade on the subcontinent working as a management consultant to an Indian hotel group building environmentally-friendly hotels around the country, called ECOTELS. The flagship hotel is called The Orchid, An Ecotel and is located in Mumbai. He returned to the UK in 2006 and has since worked at University College London for the Department of Security and Crime Science.[4] The department attempts to apply science and engineering to preventing, reducing and better detecting crime. It is one of the highest ranked departments in the country in its field.
The decade that Khan spent in India inspired him to write The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra, which was taken up by literary agents A.M. Heath in 2014. Khan was subsequently offered a four-book contract by Mullholland Books, an imprint of publishers Hodder & Stoughton for the first books in this series, referred to as the Baby Ganesh Detective Agency series.
In January 2016, The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra[5] was selected for the Waterstones Book Club, and later named a Waterstones Paperback of the Year.[6] It was also named as a Daily Telegraph Pick of the Week (in conjunction with WHSmith), an Amazon Best Debut, and was a top 10 bestseller in The Times Saturday review.
Khan wrote for over twenty years before he was published, completing half-a-dozen unpublished novels and collecting numerous rejection slips. He uses his own example to offer advice to young writers who he recommends “write, write and then, when you’re sick of it, write some more.”
Works[edit]
The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra is the first novel in the Baby Ganesh Detective Agency series, in which newly retired Inspector Chopra investigates the suspicious drowning of a poor local boy, a case no one seems to want solved. At the same time he comes to grips with the surreal situation of being sent a baby elephant by his long-lost uncle.
British cover of the Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra
British cover of the Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra
The second novel in the series is due out in 2016 and is entitled The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown.[7] The plot of the novel revolves around the theft of the world’s most famous diamond – the Koh-i-Noor, originally mined in India before being appropriated by the British and handed to Queen Victoria during the Raj. In the novel the Crown Jewels are brought to India for a special exhibition. A daring robbery sees the Koh-i-Noor stolen and Chopra and Ganesha called in to try and recover the great diamond.
In the third contracted novel in the series The Strange Disappearance of a Bollywood Star Chopra and Ganesha will be on the trail of a kidnapped Indian film star, and in the fourth they will tackle a high profile murder at the iconic Taj Palace hotel.
The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown
The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown
On his decision to include an elephant as Chopra’s sidekick Vaseem has said: “I thought it would be different and fun to cast an elephant in a crime-fighting role. On a purely practical level elephants possess all the qualities of the best detectives. They’re highly intelligent, and have those amazing memories – that’s not a myth. They also have a wide range of emotions, which is important to me as a writer because my novel isn’t just about the crimes but about the dynamic between Inspector Chopra, this rigid, middle-aged policeman, this baby elephant who he is forced to adopt, and his irrepressible wife Poppy.”
Personal life[edit]
Vaseem lives in London with his wife who he met in Mumbai, India. Elephants are third on his list of passions, first and second being great literature and cricket, not always in that order. He plays cricket all summer for his team Redbridge Cricket Club, where he attempts to bat as an opener, whilst fielding as little as possible.
Vaseem Khan: Interview
Published May 8, 2015 by Caroline Sanderson
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If ever a novel could be said to have been born in a single moment, it is The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra. In 1997, its author Vaseem Khan was a 23-year- old management consultant, newly arrived in Mumbai on his first trip to India, and about to take up a job working with a big hotel and restaurant chain on a project to build environmentally friendly “ecotels".
Khan says:“A driver picked me up at the airport and off we went along congested roads. There were honking cars and hooting trucks and buzzing rickshaws and cows and goats and a stream of humans walking along and chattering in different dialects. And right through the middle, lumbering along, came this enormous Indian elephant with a mahout on its back. That moment crystallised India for me, on my very first day there.” When Khan came to write his début novel some years later, an elephant “gatecrashed the party. Almost from the very beginning, Ganesha was in the back of my mind, demanding to be included”.
The novel opens on the day that upstanding Inspector Ashwin Chopra unwillingly takes early retirement from the Mumbai police force. It is also the day he takes delivery of his unexpected inheritance: a baby elephant sent to him by his enigmatic Uncle Bansi. “This is no ordinary elephant”, advises Bansi in his mysterious accompanying letter. And so the creature proves. Ganesha—as the endearing and tenacious baby pachyderm is soon named—and Chopra find themselves investigating their first case together: that of a drowned boy whose suspicious death no one seems to care about solving.
Had he heeded his mother, Khan—born in east London in 1973—might never have made it to Mother India. Khan’s parents had emigrated to Britain from Pakistan. “My father was always very nostalgic about India. But he was only a young boy when he moved to Pakistan, across the newly created border at the time of partition. My mother, however, was born in Pakistan in 1947 after partition so sadly she grew up with this legacy of Pakistan and India being forever at loggerheads with each other. Growing up in the UK, we did watch Bollywood films. So it wasn’t that we were completely distanced from Indian culture, but when it came to politics—or to cricket, which is the proxy for politics in the subcontinent—it was as though it was a battle: Pakistan versus India.”
When the opportunity came to work in India, Khan jumped at the chance, deciding it would be a great adventure. “The hardest part was breaking the news to my mother. I can still remember the day I told her. She cried, and said: ‘How could you possibly be going to India, of all places on earth? Why can’t you just be normal and get a job in London and work and get married and do all the things that Asian boys are supposed to do?’ I said: ‘Look, Mum, I’m only going for a few months so I can get something on my CV. I’ll come back in a few months and get a job in London.’” In the event, Khan stayed in India for 10 years. He also met his wife there, and his whole family—including his mother—came out for the wedding.
The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra is an accurate and evocative portrayal of the city Khan grew to love. “Everything about my job—the environment, the people that I was working with—screamed at me to stay,” says Khan. “For me, Mumbai is one of the world’s eternal cities. Although it’s constantly changing, it remains quintessentially Indian: its soul is Indian, and always will be. Mumbai is the best city on the subcontinent because it’s got everything that makes Indians feel alive; like cricket and the Bollywood film industry. It’s a giant candle that draws in people from around the country: all types, all castes, all religions.”
The novel is full of memorable characters too, including Chopra’s flighty but devoted wife Poppy, with whom Ganesha watches TV potboilers and eats fried banana chips; Mrs Subramanium, a “tall mantis-like presence in a dark sari and a severe coif” who presides terrifyingly over the 15-storey apartment complex where Chopra and Poppy live; Bahadur, the building’s pigeon-chested security guard; and Anarkali, a six-foot muscular eunuch in a purple sari, who was inspired by another encounter Khan had on that first car drive from the airport.
A Serious Calling
The deep love for Mumbai and its people—warts and all— that Inspector Chopra shares with his creator infuses the novel from the beginning. It is also what drives Chopra to fight crime and corruption, and even after his retirement it is a calling he cannot abandon. The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra is certainly a delightful and uplifting crime caper, but it also comes with an edifying dose of serious social comment, with many of Chopra’s preoccupations mirroring those of his creator.
“I like to think I am an honest person with a sense of integrity. When I was in India, I felt very strongly that justice should prevail, and often it doesn’t. If you have money and if you have fame, you can often escape the consequences of your actions. That never sits well with me and it doesn’t sit well with Chopra either. He is an egalitarian at heart. He believes that all people should be treated in the right manner, regardless of how rich or poor they are. In Chopra, I wanted a counterpoint to the prevailing wisdom that all police officers in India are corrupt. Yes, there is a great deal of low-level corruption in the police force, but there are also many very honest officers.”
Khan admits to giving Chopra some of his other traits too, including his love of cricket. Both author and his character share a deep admiration for Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, to whom Khan intends to give an honorary mention in each of his novels. “Cricket is something that genuinely motivates every sector, every level of Indian society. It’s a great unifying force”.
And like his fictional creation, Khan is also a crime fighter of sorts, thanks to his job as business development director at the Department of Security and Crime Science at University College London. The department was set up with funds raised after the 1999 murder of “Crimewatch” presenter Jill Dando, and investigates scientific methods of improving both crime prevention and crime detection.
Influential Authors
While his day job working on true crime comes in handy for research purposes, Khan is also a wide and devoted reader of crime fiction. “Ian Rankin is a great inspiration. He has managed to create this character, Rebus, whom we shouldn’t like because he has so many faults. But Rankin makes us love him.” Khan admires Michael Connelly’s novels featuring LA-based detective Harry Bosch too. “He’s utterly implacable in the pursuit of justice, and Inspector Chopra has the same inbuilt mission”. Hodder is drawing comparisons for this first novel in the Baby Ganesh Agency series with the work of Alexander McCall Smith. Khan is a fan of the Mma Ramotswe Botswana novels, but believes his books are slightly grittier in the crimes and social ills that they tackle.
Khan has just delivered his second novel, which features Chopra and Ganesha on the trail of the stolen Koh-i-Noor diamond. Two more contracted novels will follow: in book four, Ganesha’s mysterious origins will be explained— and perhaps also his love of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk (in one very funny scene in the first novel, a bar is used to entice Ganesha up a shopping mall escalator while Chopra is chasing a suspect).
What is it about elephants that Khan is so passionate about? “They are just such intelligent creatures, and closely related to human beings in terms of their social structures— they have very strong bonds between mother and child, for example, and they live almost the same number of years as humans. They are very emotional creatures too. I’d love readers to come with me and follow young Ganesha as he grows up: his trials, his tribulations, his triumphs, his highs and lows. And his love of chocolate.”
The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown: A Baby
Ganesh Agency Investigation
Publishers Weekly.
263.24 (June 13, 2016): p78.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown: A Baby Ganesh Agency Investigation
Vaseem Khan. Redhook, $15.99 trade paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-316-38684-5
Khan's winning second Baby Ganesh Agency mystery (after 2015's The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra) smoothly combines an
affable lead, a seemingly impossible crime, and an endearing and highly unusual sidekick--a baby elephant named Ganesha--who's adept at
surveillance. While PI Ashwin Chopra, a retired police inspector in Mumbai, India, and his wife are attending an exhibit of the British Crown
Jewels at the Prince of Wales Museum, smoke fills the room, Chopra faints, and the crown of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, is gone by the
time he regains consciousness. The jewel in that crown is a legendary diamond, the Koh-i-Noor, which many Indians believe the British stole
from their country in the 19th century. When the corrupt police arrest Insp. Shekhar Garewal, a former colleague of Chopra's who was in charge
of the exhibit's security, Garewal beseeches the detective for help. Fans of Alexander McCall Smith will find a lot to like. (Aug.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown: A Baby Ganesh Agency Investigation." Publishers Weekly, 13 June 2016, p. 78. General
OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA458871711&it=r&asid=5e98c8e5f11eb7eb273afd6508ade216. Accessed 5 Mar.
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A458871711
The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra: A Baby Ganesh Agency Investigation
Vaseem Khan. Hachette/Redhook, $16 trade paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-316-38682-1
A faulty heart has forced the early retirement of Mumbai’s Insp. Ashwin Chopra, the hero of Khan’s winning debut, but the discovery of a young man drowned in a puddle of water upsets the policeman’s last day on the job. Neither Chopra’s superior nor successor has any interest in investigating, though an autopsy later reveals that the victim had alcohol and barbiturates in his blood. Retired or not, Chopra decides he has to get to the bottom of the man’s suspicious death. Meanwhile, Chopra has inherited a baby elephant, soon named Ganesh, from his favorite uncle. Initially listless, Ganesh perks up once he begins to accompany Chopra around the city in what becomes a murder inquiry. Khan’s affection for Mumbai and its residents adds to the novel’s charm, though one hopes he’ll be more careful with the details in the sequel (e.g., women would never wear lotus blossoms in their hair; they’re too heavy). (Sept.)