Paperback Original

Will Rhode's debut has a premise that earns genuine attention: a young drifter in a Delhi flophouse must write a bestselling novel to inherit his late father's fortune, so he befriends a suspected Bollywood drug kingpin, plans to steal his money, and intends to turn the whole caper into his book. Literary satire meets crime comedy, and when it clicks, the prose is brisk and the dialogue crackles. The Delhi setting is evocative rather than postcard-pretty. The honest problems are unevenness — the tonal balance wobbles across the novel's length — and underdeveloped supporting characters. Drug use is not incidental here; it's central to the plot and setting, which limits the audience considerably. Not a family-site pick for general reading, but adult readers who enjoy self-referential literary capers will find something genuinely offbeat here.