Vaseem Khan
From Bombay to Bond, via a Small Town Killing

Wednesday 24 June, 7.30pm
Colchester Library, Trinity Square, Colchester, CO1 1JB

Bestselling crime fiction author Vaseem Khan takes us on an exhilarating journey from the post-Independence complexities of his Malabar House novels – the latest of which, The Edge of Darkness, involves a locked-room mystery in India’s northeastern jungle – to contemporary Britain’s MI6 and the exploits of James Bond and Q.

He will take a detour via his standalone thriller The Girl in Cell A, immersing us in a claustrophobic small American town replete with dark secrets. And his new series featuring Q, beginning with Quantum of Menace, brings to life one of spy fiction’s most iconic characters – but who was the real Q?

Tickets: £10 / £8 concessions (students, under 27s and unwaged)
Box Office: essexbookfestival.org.uk or Mercury Theatre 01206 573948

Event Information

💬 The event will include an audience Q&A session.
📚 Copies of the book will be available to purchase on the day.
🖊️ After the event there will be an opportunity to get the book signed by the author.
🪑 Seats are unallocated.
📸 We will be filming and taking photos at this event.

Vaseem Khan

Vaseem Khan is the author of two award-winning crime series set in India and the upcoming Quantum of Menace, the first in a series featuring Q from the James Bond franchise.

He is a previous winner of the Shamus Award in the US. His debut, The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra, was translated into 16 languages. In 2021, Midnight at Malabar House, the first in the Malabar House novels set in 1950s Bombay, won the CWA Historical Dagger and was shortlisted for the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year Award.

Vaseem lives in London and is the chair of the Crime Writers’ Association.

The Edge of Darkness

The unmissable new historical crime novel from bestselling author Vaseem Khan.

India, 1951. After wilfully ignoring orders, Persis Wadia, India’s first female police detective, is exiled from Bombay to the wild and mountainous Naga Hills District. As India’s first post-Independence election looms, and tensions rise across the country, Persis finds herself banished to the Victoria Hotel, a crumbling colonial-era relic, her career in tatters.

But when a prominent politician is murdered in his locked room at the Victoria, his head missing, she is thrust back into the fray. Is the murderer one of the foreigners staying at the hotel or an insurgent from the surrounding jungle? As the political situation threatens to explode, Persis has only days to stop a killer operating at the very edge of darkness…

‘Historical fiction at its finest’

– Mail on Sunday

‘Brilliant!’

– Ann Cleeves

‘Vaseem Khan writes with charm and wit, and an eye for detail that transports the reader entirely. I couldn’t love this series more’

– Chris Whitaker

Buy a copy of the book from bookshop.org.

Quantum of Menace – Q Mysteries

Centring on one of Ian Fleming’s most beloved characters Q (aka Major Boothroyd), this delicious witty James Bond spin-off murder mystery finds the tech boffin investigating the suspicious death of his scientist friend after being unexpectedly ousted from his job at MI6.

Filled with wit and verve, Vaseem Khan brings his vibrant and dynamic style to one of Ian Fleming’s most beloved characters, Q. Charming, drily humorous, and intelligently crafted, Quantum of Menace, the first in the Q mystery books, will appeal to Bond fans, readers of Murder Before Evensong,The Thursday Murder Club and Slow Horses novels, and those who are looking for a new take on clever crime fiction.

Q is out of MI6 and into a new world of deceit and death.

‘Excellent. An entertaining mash-up of Fleming, Le Carré and the best of British detective fiction’

– Charlie Higson

‘Pay attention, 007 … this is the story we always wanted, and Vaseem Khan tells it like the master he is – fast, wise, funny, suspenseful and highly recommended’

– Lee Child

‘Clever, cunning and quirky … Quintessential Khan’

– Mick Herron

Buy a hardback copy of the book from bookshop.org.

Pre-order a paperback copy of the book from bookshop.org – released 23 April 2026

The Girl In Cell A

A Times Thriller of the Year 2025

The world knows her as the girl in cell A

Convicted of murder at seventeen, infamous killer and true crime celebrity Orianna Negi has always maintained her innocence.

But if she didn’t kill Gideon Wyclerc, then who did?

Orianna has a blind spot over that fateful day: she can’t remember what happened. Forensic psychologist Annie Ledet is tasked with unlocking the truth.

Orianna grew up in Eden Falls, ruled by the insular Wyclerc dynasty and its ruthless patriarch , Amos. As their sessions progress, Annie reaches into Orianna’s past to a shattering realisation….

Scandal. Sex. Power. Race. And murder. Between guilt and innocence lies a fallen Eden.

‘A twist you’ll never guess’

– Alex Michaelides

‘Thrilling, thought-provoking, suspenseful’

– S.A. Cosby