‘I’ll Never Completely Deviate from Crime Writing’

S Hussain Zaidi speaks to Deepali Singh about his new book and using fiction to make facts visible

You have acknowledged in the author’s note that the biggest source of inspiration for your fiction is fact. Why is that?

I love to rely on facts, because fact is stranger than fiction. Where would I get a better, stranger or crazier premise to base my fiction on, than in fact itself? It is also my chance to bring these stories to light, to give some important facts their due, the visibility they deserve.

There are many plot lines and narratives in The Black Orphan. What was the main inspiration for this story?

There was no single inspiration. It came from many places: the unsung stories of our intelligence operatives, the new and developing threats to India, the impact of past events on the present and future and more. All of these became plot lines and narratives. A writer’s challenge is to weave all these with a suitable thread.

There is also a love story in the middle of all the terror. What made add romance to crime?

My earlier fiction, Eleventh Hour, too had a love story, which continued in its sequels, Endgame and Zero Day. But to be fair, The Black Orphan is the first time that a love story is so central to the plot, and affects much of it. It let me experiment a lot, push myself out of my action-and-suspense-only comfort zone, and helped me find new sides to myself. I can only hope the reader is as charitable to my romantic side as they are to the action-writer side.

Crime is a popular genre, especially in literature. Why do true-crime stories have such an appeal for readers? After being known as India’s No 1 crime writer, do you see yourself ever deviating from the genre?

I may experiment from time to time, but I don’t think I’ll ever completely deviate. My writing comes from my experience as a crime reporter, and you can’t take something like that out of a person. Why just crime; any reporter on any beat is always mired in it in one way or another for the rest of his or her life. Would you ever be able to look at a book without thinking of questions to ask its writer?

Is there another book in the pipeline? If yes, can you share some details?

With me, there is always another book. But, that is all

I am at liberty to reveal at the moment, not just because of Non-Disclosure Agreements, but also because a story may begin as a book and end up as something else. It has happened before, and it happens a lot.