Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Black River | 2022 | Nilanjana Roy | Buy |
Black River (2022) is Nilanjana Roy’s standalone crime novel and her first work of genre fiction. Set in Delhi and its outskirts, the book examines a killing in a community where violence and inequality are already part of daily life. Roy uses the noir form to explore how social structures — caste, gender, economic precarity — shape both crime and its aftermath.
The novel grew from Roy’s long engagement with Delhi as a journalist. She spent years reporting on gender violence in the city and surrounding states for the New York Times, walking the Yamuna riverbanks and documenting communities that rarely appear in mainstream fiction. That research gives Black River a specificity and weight unusual in crime fiction.
The book was shortlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger, one of the most prestigious prizes in English-language crime writing, bringing Roy’s work to a new international readership.