The Detective

Ajay Chowdhury was the inaugural winner of the Harvill Secker-Bloody Scotland crime fiction award. He is a tech entrepreneur and theatre director who was born in India and now lives in London where he builds digital businesses, cooks experimental dishes for his wife and daughters and writes through the night. His children's book, Ayesha and the Firefish, was published in 2016 and adapted into a musical.

The Waiter, published in 2021, is the first in his critically-acclaimed crime series about Detective Kamil Rahman, an ex-policeman from Kolkata who has moved to Brick Lane in London. It is being adapted for television by Moonage Pictures. Follow-up The Cook was published in May 2022 to excellent reviews and deals with the issue of homelessness. The third book in the series - The Detective - is about government surveillance and AI. The Spy is the fourth book in the Detective Kamil Rahman series.

*As seen on The One Show*
*A Times and Sunday Times Crime Book of the Year*

A BRUTAL KILLING UNCOVERS A COLD CASE. HAS SOMEONE GOT AWAY WITH MURDER?

'A rip-roaring mystery that's engrossing from start to finish' ABIR MUKHERJEE
On the verge of a four-billion-dollar deal, a tech entrepreneur is found dead on a construction site, which leads to the discovery of three skeletons over a hundred years old.

Desperate to solve his first case for the Met, Detective Kamil Rahman is under pressure to prove to his colleagues that he's up to the job.

But as fresh bodies turn up, can Kamil - along with his friend Anjoli - prevent another murder?

*The thrilling new Kamil Rahman mystery, THE SPY, is available to pre-order now!*

*****

Praise for the Detective Kamil Rahman series:

'Hugely entertaining' ANN CLEEVES

'The Detective has all the ingredients for a great crime series' SUN

'[Kamil is a] likeable inspector . . . We shall hear much more of him' DAILY MAIL

'An elegantly constructed thriller' THE TIMES

'Outstanding' SUNDAY TIMES


Times and Sunday Times Crime Books of the Year, 2023
The One Show guest, November 2023
__________________________
About the detectives:
Kamil has always wanted to be top cop. With a father who reached the position of Police Commissioner of the Calcutta police, what else could he do, other than hanker after an honourable career chasing the bad guys, just like his dad. However, the odds are stacked against him. He's a Muslim in the Met, facing overt and covert racism and he needs to be twice as good as his colleagues to make it. All of this he could cope with, if only his personal life was humming along smoothly.
Anjoli is searching, but she doesn't know what for. A high-minded psychologist who is super smart, always restless and naturally empathetic, she is meticulous and often finds connections Kamil has missed. She would love to get deeper into crime solving - possibly even have a go at it full-time but she can't shake the feeling that she is an imposter in a game of let's pretend. Kamil makes her laugh, but she doesn't know why she can't make the leap. Why is she so scared of surrendering her heart to him? Does she not feel deserving of love and adoration? Or does she fear a life where she's always waiting for the other shoe to drop?