Excerpt: Detectives Of Autumn House, Written by Manjima Misra

The novel traces the journey of a Detective Collective based in London which consists of 5 female detectives who are lesbians in polyamorous relationships and live together in Autumn House, a house designed with Autumn aesthetics. When the Deliski case comes to light which is based on authors’ disappearances and a lookalike of the prince, the Detective Collective investigates the matter and discovers that the case has a connection with a certain woman based in Delhi, India.

Here's an excerpt from Manjima Misra's Detectives Of Autumn House 

Pallavi Jones was walking around the Connaught Place Market in India which was lit up with fairy lights as it was Christmas. As she lit the cigarette, Lira Jackson walked towards her and said, “I have declined the old man’s request. There is a new case related to a bookstore chain. We can take that up as I have heard that the bookstore violates intellectual property rights, and the authors of certain novels have gone missing.”

“Is there a common thread connecting the authors?”

“All the authors were approached by an old man who offered them a huge amount of money in return for them selling the intellectual property rights and permitting him to publish the books under his name. And all the authors are writers of detective novels. They were struggling writers with dwindling financial resources”. 

The pavements were wet with rainwater and the autumn leaves shone with a golden brown shade. The trees that lined the pavements in the Connaught Circle were full of orangish-yellow leaves that exuded a vibrant and serene vibe at the same time. Lira and Pallavi turned their heads to look at the arriving black car and a man with sunglasses and black hat stepped out of the car.

He extended his hand towards the car door and helped out a young lady. The man and lady in question held hands and walked towards a bookstore which had a red door and a red signboard with ‘Sherlock House’ written in white letters. 

“So who is this old man we were talking about?” asked Pallavi Jones.

“He publishes the manuscripts under the pseudonym of ‘Deliski’.” replied Lira Jackson. It had just started drizzling. As the rainwater formed puddles on the ground, it splashed against the dark black boots of the two detectives. They walked back to the busy parking area where their bicycles were standing, glimmering because of the water on its surface.

The golden canopies of trees converged towards each other across the foggy grey sky. Lira and Pallavi rode their bicycles towards a nearby terrace coffee shop called London’s Rose Cafe. As they cycled speedily together, they were quite a sight to watch. They circled the entire Connaught Market and soon got into an extraordinary race with each other. Finally, they got down and entered the coffee shop.

It had begun to rain heavily now and both Lira and Pallavi sat quietly across from each other for a minute, listening to the raindrops falling on the window glass. The sun had started setting now giving space to the twilight sky. Lira opened the window, and noticed a woman looking at her. It was the same lady who was helped out of the car by the man with sunglasses earlier in the day.

The woman was standing against the black car with folded arms, sunglasses, a deep brown hat and deep brown overcoat wrapped tightly around her. The woman captured a photograph of the coffee shop and walked away.

Extracted with permission from Manjima Misra's Detectives Of Autumn House.