After the poetic “Plainspeak”, Kishore Pillai spins a spine-chilling tale of crime, murder and mystery in his first novel. Titled “Ambition's Curse” it is the tale of the brutal murder of a young artist Nita who is a victim of professional jealousy. The book published by Indialog has just been released in New Delhi.
“Art, business and the ambitions of a few together produce a heady mix and a compelling read in this fast paced novel,” divulges Pillai, giving his readers enough reason to indulge in the nerve-wracking tale of suspense and crime on a boring summer afternoon.
Writing for this professor of marketing at Leeds University Business School “just happened” as he puts it. Describing the struggle, he reveals that the initial draft was written around the year 2000. But people were not very open to new authors so it was difficult to get a publisher. Just two years ago, Indialog liked the story and things started moving for him.
But a crime story from someone who began with poems seems strange. “Crime has always fascinated me. Reading a lot of Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle got me the idea of writing a crime thriller,” he reasons.
“I then read a lot of books by police officers and articles on underworld dons to get an idea of how the crime world runs. Though it was not planned. The plot just evolved as I wrote,” he reveals.
Did any real life encounters or experiences influence him while writing?
“Not really. The story is mainly fictional. However, there is a shootout sequence that is inspired by a similar incident in Chennai sometime ago,” says Pillai, who grew up in the South of India and is now settled in the UK.
“The story is set in an unknown city to give me the freedom of creating without limitations. It also makes the global reader relate to the story more,” he says adding that he would like to release the book in the global market if it does well in India. Forever in search of wider horizons, the author expresses his desire of turning the book into a movie. “Going by Graham Green's classification of novels into literature and entertainers, my book is a complete crime entertainer and can be adapted very well into a movie,” he enthuses.
First poetry, now a murder mystery, what is this multi-faceted marketing professor writing next?
“I have read a lot literary authors like Gabriel Marquez, Italo Calvino, Milan Kundra, Vikram Seth and Ernest Hemingway . I was fascinated by the work of Albert Camus while in college and would like to write something more literary in future. I am also compiling another book of my poems,” he signs off.
