THE GREAT INDIAN THRILLER

Deepti Kapoor's new book snakes through Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Goa, weaving a heady tale that is already slated for a visual adaptation

- Bhavya Dore

Deepti Kapoor's new novel, Age of Vice, arrives amidst a thrum of fanfare. The Guardian declared it "India's answer to the Godfather", it's been at the heart of intense bidding wars by TV producers, and it sits on several most-awaited titles lists of 2023.

The already-hailed second novel from Kapoor opens with a chilling road accident. A drunk driver in a speeding Mercedes kills five people late one night in Delhi. From here, the novel picks up speed as it journeys through 'Delhi life', the shiny and the ugly, and a world of thugs and parties (political and otherwise).

"I never had any intention to write a crime thriller, it's constantly surprising to me [that] it's now being slotted in that category," says Kapoor, who lives in Lisbon with her husband. "It starts with a crash that leaves five people dead and there is a mystery at the heart of the novel, but then, you know, it goes into so many different directions. It's hard to slot your own novel in any genre. I think of it like a Bollywood masala film, it has a little bit of everything."