SCENTS AND SENSIBILITIES

Hemangini Dutt Majumder returns with her latest Gothic detective mystery, The Scratch and Sniff Chronicles (Niyogi Books), featuring a new kind of sleuth—one who can sniff out more than just lies.

- ADITHI REENA AJITH

The book was launched at Delhi's Alliance Française, amidst a laughter-filled conversation with a panel featuring Patricia Loison, director of Alliance Française; actor Padmapriya Janakiraman; RJ Sarthak; chef Sadaf Hussain; and the author herself.

The evening, set in the jasmine-scented, flower-filled auditorium, was designed to evoke Neelbari, the mysterious ancestral estate in the novel, set in West Bengal's Chandannagar, mirroring the immersive world of Ollie's story.

Olympia Chattergee—Ollie, for short—is a 29-year-old sommelier with an aversion to working out, a deep love for food and random Nat Geo factoids, and one highly unusual gift: a hypersensitive nose which picks up random fragrances that often has her jokingly comparing herself to Batman. Nearly every page contains a smell-note: the comforting familiarity of talcum powder, the sharpness of garam masala, the antiseptic zing of Ultracin gel, or the unmistakable aroma of Koraishutir Kochuri (fried bread with pea stuffing).

The idea to center the narrative around olfactory senses was born out of Majumder's own hypersensitivity to smell—a condition partly linked to her diagnosis of polycystic ovaries. "This is a lived experience—a lens through which I've often experienced the world," she says.