Vaseem Khan

Biography

Khan was born in the London Borough of Newham, studied at the Coopers’ Company and Coborn School in Upminster, Havering, did A-Levels at Newham College, before studying Accounting and Finance at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He subsequently spent a decade on the subcontinent working as a management consultant to an Indian hotel group building environmentally-friendly hotels around the country, called ECOTELS. The flagship hotel is called The Orchid, An Ecotel and is located in Mumbai. He returned to the UK in 2006 and has since worked at University College London for the Department of Security and Crime Science. The department attempts to apply science and engineering to preventing, reducing and better detecting crime. It is one of the highest ranked departments in the country in its field.

The decade that Khan spent in India inspired him to write The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra, which was taken up by literary agents A.M. Heath in 2014. Khan was subsequently offered a four-book contract by Mullholland Books, an imprint of publishers Hodder & Stoughton for the first books in this series, referred to as the Baby Ganesh Detective Agency series.

In January 2016, The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra was selected for the Waterstones Book Club, and later named a Waterstones Paperback of the Year. It was also named as a Daily Telegraph Pick of the Week (in conjunction with WHSmith), an Amazon Best Debut, and was a top 10 bestseller in The Times Saturday review.

Khan wrote for over twenty years before he was published, completing half-a-dozen unpublished novels and collecting numerous rejection slips. He uses his own example to offer advice to young writers who he recommends “write, write and then, when you’re sick of it, write some more.”

Works

The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra is the first novel in the Baby Ganesh Detective Agency series, in which newly retired Inspector Chopra investigates the suspicious drowning of a poor local boy, a case no one seems to want solved. At the same time he comes to grips with the surreal situation of being sent a baby elephant by his long-lost uncle.

The second novel in the series is due out in 2016 and is entitled The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown. The plot of the novel revolves around the theft of the world’s most famous diamond – the Koh-i-Noor, originally mined in India before being appropriated by the British and handed to Queen Victoria during the Raj. In the novel the Crown Jewels are brought to India for a special exhibition. A daring robbery sees the Koh-i-Noor stolen and Chopra and Ganesha called in to try and recover the great diamond.

In the third contracted novel in the series The Strange Disappearance of a Bollywood Star Chopra and Ganesha will be on the trail of a kidnapped Indian film star, and in the fourth they will tackle a high profile murder at the iconic Taj Palace hotel.

On his decision to include an elephant as Chopra’s sidekick Vaseem has said: “I thought it would be different and fun to cast an elephant in a crime-fighting role. On a purely practical level elephants possess all the qualities of the best detectives. They’re highly intelligent, and have those amazing memories – that’s not a myth. They also have a wide range of emotions, which is important to me as a writer because my novel isn’t just about the crimes but about the dynamic between Inspector Chopra, this rigid, middle-aged policeman, this baby elephant who he is forced to adopt, and his irrepressible wife Poppy.”

Personal life

Vaseem lives in London with his wife who he met in Mumbai, India. Elephants are third on his list of passions, first and second being great literature and cricket, not always in that order. He plays cricket all summer for his team Redbridge Cricket Club, where he attempts to bat as an opener, whilst fielding as little as possible.