The Detective Diaries

The Detective Diaries presents the most sensational post-Independence cases of Kolkata Police, the oldest police commissionerate in Asia. Writer Supratim Sarkar, a serving additional commissioner of Kolkata Police, captures the different aspects of criminal investigation in a style that is rare among India’s true-crime writers. Starting from 1948 and coming right down to 2010, every case is a trendsetter, either owing to the nature of the crime, or the manner in which it was solved. From cold-blooded, psychopathic murderers to those who killed purely for money, from crimes of passion to conmen who made masterful use of technology, the selection is as varied as it is fascinating. No matter what the context, each crime made headlines. The man who mercilessly killed his pregnant wife, or the killer who wiped out his entire family, are as easily identifiable as the man who decided that big ticket robberies is the path to happiness. The highlight of the book is a case that caught the attention of the nation—the stoneman murders of 1989, a series of killings that terrorized Kolkata for months, and gave rise to an entire pantheon of urbanegends. For the first time, this book presents the police version of this unsolved case. A glimpse into Kolkata's dark underbelly, guided by an author whose job takes him there every day, this book will shock and amaze in equal measure.