Cut-Like Wound

It is the first night of Ramadan. At Shivaji Nagar in the heart of Bangalore, a young male prostitute is killed and burnt alive. It would have stayed as yet another unsolved murder, but for Inspector Borei Gowda, the investigating officer. As bodies begin to pile up one after the other, and it becomes clear that a serial killer is on the prowl, Gowda recognizes a pattern in the killings which no one else does. Even as he negotiates serious mid-life blues, problems with his wife and son, an affair with an ex-girlfriend, and official apathy and ridicule, the killer moves in for the next victim...Steeped in the lanes and atmosphere of the city of Bangalore, A Cut- Like Wound introduces to the reader a host of unforgettable characters and is a brutal psychological thriller unlike any in world fiction.

"This is not just a story of another smart cop on the trail of another serial killer. It is more an exploration of the mind of a killer, that tempts the reader to sympathize." India Today "Nair writes big, brave descriptions of one brutal murder after the next, relentlessly describing each death even as sub-inspector Santosh loses his breakfast over them. At the crux of every great mystery novel is that penny-drop moment where the revelation leaves you cold with shock. In Cut Like Wound, the penny hits you on your head like a golf ball." Time Out "'Once I've created a character, I step into their shoes',says Nair who admits to an element of wish fulfillment with Gowda. 'Here's a character who can do all the things I can't. He rides a Bullet motorcycle and can get piss drunk - all those things that one part of me won't allow me to do.' A confirmed detective fiction junkie, you hope the author hurries up with the next installment. It's torture to wait two years for any man; it's even worse if he's as interesting as Inspector Borei Gowda." Hindustan Times

Anita Nair lives in Bangalore and is a prize winning, internationally acclaimed author, playwright, essayist, lecturer and literary personality. Her novel Ladies Coupe, first published in the US ten years ago by St. Martin's Griffin, is a feminist classic which has been published in thirty languages all over the world. The Daily Telegraph called it 'one of the most important feminist novels to come out of South India'. The movie adaptation of her previous book, Lessons in Forgetting, has just won the Indian national award for the best feature film in English language, and an Indian language film based on this new book is already being discussed. Anita Nair has never shied away from the darker underside of life but Cut Like Wound is a new departure for her into noir and literary crime. St Martin's Press has recently published her latest novel, The Lilac House, in the US.