In my first book, Kathputli, the protagonist was so me that for the first few months after its release, friends and family were forever messaging me with questions like, “Did you have an auto accident in Hyderabad and not tell me?”
In my next novel, ‘A Killer Among Us,’ I had learnt the value of objectivity and distance, and only put myself into one character and let the others, including the main protagonist, be her own woman.
When I began to develop the character of Mo, for my ‘Mo mysteries’, the temptation to make a street smart, intuitive detective in my image was strong. But I have enough self-awareness to know that it wouldn’t really have worked out, because well, have you met me?
So, I regretfully left mental images of myself in a deerstalker cap behind and gave it some thought. It was a process of elimination as much as creation to make Mo, my amateur sleuth. By elimination I mean, I didn’t want her to be like any other detective I had read about. I also wanted to avoid some of the cliches that have got entrenched into detective fiction.
Mo was, therefore, highly intelligent and hyper-observant. That is a given for any successful detective. But without the swollen head and patronising manner of many of the detectives in literature; because I thought, that would only get in one’s way during a case, wouldn’t it?
Mo is not (yet, at least) a professional detective. Her natural abilities attract people with problems to her like flies. She falls into one case after the other without ever seeking them out. After all, if you have a problem, perhaps of a delicate nature, and you knew someone who has a talent for getting to the heart of the matter with maximum discretion, wouldn’t you go?
I made her socially awkward and very quiet (me, on bad days) and uncomfortable with any kind of emotional demonstration (like a friend from school. This friend, dear me, she could get very strange indeed when someone was being emotional). Mo, of course, reins it in behind a mask; and comes across as deadpan and unresponsive. Of course, it would be better for a detective to not have these failings, considering her work is with people, but the Universe can be mischievous like that.
Mo is an Indian sleuth, and therefore has an extended circle of family and friends, despite her social awkwardness. Her family is very like mine and everyone else’s; always there to love and scold, support and criticize in equal measure. Mo goes with the flow and never gets too emotional or entangled. By the second story, I have already introduced a maternal grandmother, her parents, a long-lost aunt (and uncle) and have alluded to the death of another relative, to be dealt with in a later installment of the series.
Dipankar (of Readomania) suggested I map out Mo entirely as a person. A completely sensible suggestion, and thus, even before completing the first story, I sat and populated an excel sheet with every aspect of Mo I could think of. Her politics and religious beliefs, what she looks like (which I intentionally don’t dwell on too much. My rebellion against the genre, I suppose), where she lives, what she studied in college, etc. Though most of these details don’t make it to the stories; it still put me on firmer ground in relation to my heroine and I can say she is progressively gaining flesh and blood as I continue to write the series.
For the situations, I like to keep them relatable. Usually from a germ sown in my head from my own experiences. No, I do not own a valuable sapphire (if only!), but how it got stolen is from a harrowing experience I had last year. You’ll have to read the story to know what I mean.
Because of how relatable the crimes are, I enjoy having Mo solve them with common sense and sheer persistence. And of course, through the application of Mo’s formidable grey cells. I avoid new fangled tech as much as possible, but never say never; several stories down, she may have gained the budget and the know-how to solve murders with their help too, who knows?
That said, I always look up what I’m writing about. I ask experts in the field when available and read up on everything online. After embarking on this path as a mystery writer, my google search history is chilling. Much like a meme I recently saw, I have searched untraceable poisons in the Indian sub-continent, head injuries from blunt objects, TAT for fingerprint and DNA analysis, police procedure for John Does (they aren’t called John Does here), USD to INR conversions of enormous sums of money, and the value of the most famous precious stones in history, to name a few. If someone could be put away for life based on her search history, then you might as well slap the cuffs on me without delay.
That is not to say, I only go by the book and by facts. I take a great number of liberties and depend heavily on poetic license. Where’s the fun if I couldn’t?
All in all, with the three works of detective fiction I have written so far, I hope I have struck a balance both with the characters and the cases, between believability and entertainment. Do read them and let me know. I fervently hope to see a good review from you, because, you don’t want to get on the bad side of a person who knows all about untraceable poisons, do you?
Currently, there are two books in this series- When Push Comes to Shove and The Cursed Stone.
Ushasi Sen Basu holds a master’s degree in English Literature from Jadavpur University, Kolkata. She has been a professional writer and editor for nearly a decade and a half, and is the erstwhile editor-in-chief of SiyaWoman.com. She has written a crime novel, A Killer Among Us, contributed a story to the Readomania Book of Crime Thrillers, and created the Mo-Mysteries. Two books of this multi-series detective stories are already on kindle, the first is When Push Comes to Shove and the second is The Cursed Stone. Her debut book was Kathputli.
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