HarperCollins Presents a Thrilling New Anuja Chauhan Whodunnit!

shabnam.srivastava@harpercollins.co.in | 31 March 2023

ANUJA CHAUHAN IS BACK WITH A THRILLING NEW WHODUNNIT,

A SEQUEL TO THE SOON-TO-BE-A-MOVIE MURDER MYSTERY, CLUB YOU TO DEATH,

FEATURING THE BELOVED DETECTIVE, ACP BHAVANI SINGH

Releasing in October 2023

HarperCollins India is delighted to announce the acquisition of India’s much loved author Anuja Chauhan’s new book, a crackling murder mystery and a sequel to her superbly successful crime novel Club You to Death (soon to be made into a movie by Maddock Films), featuring the old-school, kind yet keen cop-detective, ACP Bhavani Singh. The novel will be released in October 2023.

Readers and Anuja’s fans across the world can now order the full range of Anuja’s thoroughly entertaining and widely acclaimed novels, including the timeless classic #Those Pricey Thakur Girls, the rollicking #BattleForBittora, the adventurous #Baaz and the cosy murder mystery #ClubYouToDeath, via Amazon.com.

About the next ‘ACP Bhavani Singh’ novel –

All of Habba galli, Shivajinagar is disturbed when eccentric old Dorothy ‘Dondi’ Pias empties her double barrel shotgun into a pack of noisy stray dogs on Karwa Chauth night, injuring one grievously.

But their distress turns to horror the next morning, when it is discovered that one of the bullets has pierced a window pane and ploughed into the skull of a wealthy jeweller as he sat at his desk in his street-facing design studio, leaving him quite definitely dead.

The more devout residents immediately recall how, on the previous night, the jeweller’s wife of thirty years had succumbed to hunger and broken her fast well before the Karwa Chauth moon rose in the sky. ‘Aiyyo,’ they whisper, ‘this is what comes of displeasing the Goddess!’

But several mere mortals have motives too. Including rising Bollywood star Haider Sait, back in Shivajinagar after eight years to visit his widowed mother, and still eager to find favour with neighbourhood goddess Jhoomar Rao, now newly-poor, newly-single and a veterinary surgeon, but unaffected as ever by his famous charm.

With corpses piling up amongst the lehenga boutiques and Twistato stalls in Bangalore’s most bustling and colourful district, will ACP Bhavani Singh be able to prove his powerful hunch – that the happenings on Habba galli are neither freak accidents, but a sinister case of murder-most-meticulous?

Talking about her upcoming novel, ANUJA CHAUHAN said, ‘’This is my first bazaar novel – I love the energy and the color and the noise of a good old desi bazaar. I don’t know which bit I loved writing the most – the denizens of Habba Galli, the murder, or ACP Bhavani nosing about for clues while on his ‘annual honeymoon’, resplendent in floral bush shirts and Bermuda shorts.’’

POULOMI CHATTERJEE, Publisher at HarperCollins India, said, ‘’Anuja has proved time and again that she is the queen of wit and entertainment in any form and genre. Like all the iconic characters across her books, ACP Bhavani Singh too has made a special place for himself in readers’ hearts and minds. He is the perfect combination of the resourceful, intrepid detective from fiction and your favourite uncle at family gatherings – all kindness and understanding and teller of the best jokes, but one who never misses a trick. We’re delighted to be publishing the next investigative adventure he gets embroiled in – it promises to be as chatpata, dhamakedar and marvellously twisty as you’d expect!’’

Praise for Anuja Chauhan

‘Anuja Chauhan is the literary pop-star of our time…’ – Vogue India

‘One of the most readable writers in the country.’ – Cosmopolitan India

‘A bestselling author with her instantly likeable characters and relatable settings.’ – Elle India

‘Anuja Chauhan, anointed the Jane Austen of India…’ – Economic Times

‘Anuja Chauhan’s novels fizz with romance and social comedy, but she’s also taken on India’s biggest preoccupations…’ – Times of India

‘The only Indian writer of popular fiction really worth buying.’ – Mint

‘Anuja Chauhan has been a darling for numerous Indian readers.’ – Hindustan Times

‘Best known for quick-witted romantic novels, Anuja Chauhan seems to do the impossible – create wildly popular books that all have great literary appeal, too.’ –Reader’s Digest

‘[Anuja] is a writer of comedy, in an expansive, life-affirming sense of the word, her influences being as much Vikram Seth as Joseph Heller.’ – The Indian Express

Praise for ACP Bhavani Singh and Club You to Death

‘Having crafted this perfect insider atmosphere, Chauhan places the case (and us) in the hands of the perfect outsider. A policeman who’s upper caste and English-speaking but not quite Club Class, ACP Bhavani Singh is somehow observant enough to imagine other people’s compulsions, be they of caste, class, gender or something else. Instead of the Singham-variety cop “who makes the criminals piss their pants”, Bhavani makes “all the crooks leap up grinning, and ask him how his granddaughters are”. Stolidly incorruptible, staunchly non-violent and persuasively gender-sensitive, the old Delhi Police officer feels even more like a form of wish-fulfilment than Chauhan’s dishy romantic heroes. So, of course, we dearly want to believe he might exist. Much of the pleasure of Club You to Death comes from watching the amicable old policeman piece the case together quietly, his “little grey cells” keen enough not to draw attention to himself.’ – Scroll.in

‘Gossip, scandal and a perfect murder! Anuja Chauhan’s whodunnit Club You to Death features a beautiful corpse, an unusual investigating officer in ACP Bhavani Singh, action set in Delhi’s poshest club and a set of characters that gives the reader insights into everything from young love to privilege, politics and hypocrisy.’ – Hindustan Times

‘ACP Bhavani Singh, the true breakout character of this book, “cute as a cheeku and keen as a cheel”, is deputed to solve this case… And soon secrets begin to tumble out by the dozens, leading, 350-odd pages later, to a proper Agatha Christie-like finale, where “Cheeku-cheel Bhavani” performs like Poirot in front of a gathering of all the players.’ – The Asian Age

‘Bhavani Singh is a neatly written antithesis of the machismo-driven Bollywood franchise cop; an anti-Singham if you will, an old-school moderate in a world where excess has been normalised… He is the kind of protagonist who grows on you almost unnoticed, until you are clearly visualising their face and/or reading lines in their voice…’ – Livemint

“A fan of Agatha Christie, [Anuja Chauhan] has succeeded in creating her own version of Mrs Marple in ACP Bhavani. An old-school character people readily opened up to, there’s just so much scope in him that it would be a pity if we didn’t see him return in subsequent mysteries. Club You to Death is surely another winner for Anuja Chauhan.” – The Tribune

About the Author

Anuja Chauhan worked in advertising for over seventeen years and is credited with many popular campaigns including PepsiCo’s Nothing official About It, Yeh Dil Maange More, Mera Number Kab Aayega, Oye Bubbly and Darr ke Aage Jeet Hai. She is the author of five bestselling novels (The Zoya Factor, Battle for Bittora, Those Pricey Thakur Girls, The House that BJ Built and Baaz) all of which have been acquired by major Bombay studios. She lives outside Bangalore with her three children, a varying number of dogs and cats, and her husband, television producer Niret Alva.

About HarperCollins India

HarperCollins India publishes some of the finest writers from the Indian Subcontinent and around the world, publishing approximately 200 new books every year, with a print and digital catalogue of more than 2,000 titles across 10 imprints. Its authors have won almost every major literary award including the Man Booker Prize, JCB Prize, DSC Prize, New India Foundation Award, Atta Galatta Prize, Shakti Bhatt Prize, Gourmand Cookbook Award, Publishing Next Award, Tata Literature Live! Award, Gaja Capital Business Book Prize, BICW Award, Sushila Devi Award, Sahitya Akademi Award and Crossword Book Award. HarperCollins India also represents some of the finest publishers in the world including Harvard University Press, Gallup Press, Oneworld, Bonnier Zaffre, Usborne, Dover and Lonely Planet. HarperCollins India is now the recipient of five Publisher of the Year Awards – In 2021 and 2015 at the Publishing Next Industry Awards, and in 2021, 2018 and 2016 at Tata Literature Live. HarperCollins India is a subsidiary of HarperCollins Publishers.

For more information and queries, please write to: Shabnam.Srivastava@harpercollins.co.in

Click on this link to order the books by Anuja Chauhan – https://www.amazon.com/stores/Anuja-Chauhan/author/B004PDIMBC?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true