The evergreen allure of Sherlock Holmes, plots that make Scandinavian crime bestsellers and the popularity of an elderly Hindi pulp writer. These and more drew mystery fiction enthusiasts to the inaugural Crime Writers Festival here today.
While writers from different countries spoke about their crime 'whodunnits' and the influence of the genre on society, prolific Hindi author Surender Mohan Pathak was visibly a strong crowdpuller at the event.
Pathak, a master of the Hindi pulp fiction genre who has around 300 novels to his credit was greeted by fans who came wearing badges and T shirts in support of the septuagenarian author.
"I have been writing for 55 years. All these years I have managed to survive as I write in cycles. I keep trying new things to keep the readers hooked," Pathak said.
The Delhi-based writer was in discussion with author and filmmaker Piyush Jha on topics that freewheeled from the state of Hindi literature to how he tries to stay relevant in the modern age.
A recent poll by Amazon India found that his latest book, "The Colaba Conspiracy" set in Mumbai and featuring the expert lock-picker Jeet Singh, had got the highest number of votes as the country's favorite book.
Readers and loyal fans have formed a club devoted to the 74-year-old writings.
"We formed this club in 2006 as a group on Orkut. Later we opened a Facebook group called 'Surender Mohan Pathak - The Legend'. We organise meetings and get togethers with fellow members every month," says Shobhit Gupta, a fan who also sported an 'I am an SMPian' badge.
Meanwhile, Nowergian writer Nils Nordberg was the opening speaker at the festival which focussed on sub genres of crime writing that includes political crime, corporate crime humour and gender violence.
Nordberg, a leading expert on Scandanavian crime fiction discussed the morally complex sub genre.
Stating that Nordic Noir does not make use of superfluous words, Norberg said, "In Norway there is increase in writing crime novels based on the second Cold War."
He also pointed out that for a country with a limited population the number of dead bodies in Norwegian crime was astounding.
