These women & their ‘killer’ stories!

Neha Saini

The classic whodunnit, intriguing stories of murders and nuancedcharacters that bring out the darkest of emotions in readers! Women writers are successfully venturing into the crime fiction genre and while doing so, they are bringing the stories of murder into the warmth and comfort of our homes contrary to the traditional outdoor location of seedy bars and dingy back alleys.

While these stories of intrigue always find readers, what makes women writers excel in storytelling in this genre? Six prominent women writers of Indian literary fraternity explain. Coming together for an anthology of stories dealing with the darker side of human nature, Paro Anand, Bulbul Sharma, Uddipana Goswami, Mitra Phukan, Venita Coelho and Pratyaksha Sinha held a web discussion on their book, She Stoops To Kill – Stories of Crime and Passion. The book, published last year,has stories by eight women writers and was edited by Preeti Gill, literary agent and editor, who moderated the session.

Pratyaksha Sinha, whose story Ginny Kalra, I Love You deals with a murder of an air hostess, said, “I feel that women, since they are naturally organised and nuanced, bring more grace and elegance to a murder story than men. Their stories are more complex.” She said there had been hesitation and doubts initially while moving into this genre, now that it has been done, it’s fascinating to understanda deviant mind.

Mitra Phukan, whose story has a poisoned paan as a murder weapon, said what made the collection different from usual murder mysteries was the fact that they had brought murder into the warmth, comfort and intimacy of everyday homes. “The idea was to bring home to the reader that evil can lurk in ordinary places, and has an ordinary face,” said Mitra.

Talking about the genesis of the stories, they shared that the idea had come to them while some of them were waiting at the Guwahati airport for a delayed flight. Paro Anand, who wrote the finale story in the book, said, “I wrote the story when I entertained murderous thoughts after a particularly grisly quarrel with my husband! The story was like a catharsis for me.” That coming from an author, who has won Bal Sahitya Puraskar by Sahitya Akademi and has authored popular books for children and young adult, speaks about the fascination shared by authors and readers alike for a good murder mystery.

Spell-binding exercise

They agreed that writing from the point of view of the criminal, like Ruth Rendell does, is a morbidly spellbinding exercise, and they have written more stories dealing with crime and murder since this collection appeared. Reading excerpts from their respective stories, the six writers then shared how they had got the idea for the stories.

“I thought about the end first, and then wove it back,” shared Bulbul Sharma, whose story Murder in the Wedding Season is set in the hills of Shimla. VenitaCoehlo, who wrote Sister, a story that has a eunuch helping the police solve a murder, said that her stories are written quite like Russian dolls, twist within twist, plot within plot, to make for an intricate read.

A common factor for these women and their stories is that She Stoops to Kill was quite a departure from their usual writings. Uddipana Goswami and Mitra Phukan have prominently written stories about political violence and unrest, especially in North-East; Venita Coehlo, Bulbul Sharma and Paro Anand have made a mark in children’s literature.

Explaining that, Uddipana admitted, “Yes, it was difficult initially to conceive of a dark story, and to convince myself to write one but once I got going it was great fun.” Her story is based on a folktale in which a girl is reborn as a lotus flower only to lead a character to the mystery of a disappearance.

“The fascination with this genre never quite ends. Although the field of crime writing is traditionally thought to be male-dominated, female readers are more drawn to crime fiction than men, and some of the best writers of the genre are women like Ruth Rendell, Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie and PD James. I have always been an avid reader of this genre and have read with delight the works of Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens and others,” said Preeti Gill, who brought these women together, literally!