Today on Al Jazeera's talk show South2North, Redi Tlhabi chats to three crime novelists: Professor Mukoma Wa Ngugi, the Kenyan-raised, American-based author of Black Star Nairobi; Professor Shamini Flint, the Malaysian-born, Singapore-based author of A Calamitous Chinese Killing; and Scotland's Ian Rankin, whose latest number one best-seller, Standing In Another Man's Grave, brings Inspector Rebus back from a five-year retirement.
Ian believes that one reason why crime fiction persists as a bestselling genre is because, It deals with a very basic question: why, decade after decade, century after century, do we continue to do bad things to each other?
When he started writing, crime novels were perceived differently, especially in Britain. People still tended to think of Agatha Christie, of spinsters, titled gentlemen or Belgian detectives solving strange crimes involving unusual poisons and billiard rooms and stately homes and things happening in the vicarage we weren't supposed to know about, he says. That was a very pastoral, curious version of England and Englishness.
In the late 20th century, he noticed a shift towards a more urbanised crime fiction that did deal with social issues and politics That is where I was coming from: a tradition of writing dark gothic tales but marrying that to a concern with modern, urban society.
He believes there's an emerging generation of young authors who are particularly attracted to crime fiction because they find things in the crime thriller that they don't necessarily get from the literary novel. You get a great sense of place; you get a sense of big moral questions; you can talk about corruption in low and high places. Politics, the economy - nothing is off limits.
Similarly, Shamini used her Inspector Singh crime series to break away from the Western stereotype of Asia.
I decided to write crime because I wanted to write about contemporary Asia, she says. What I found was that most of the literature coming out of India was always the grand historical novel, and it always had people whose lives were determined by fate. They were born, a soothsayer would come along and say Oh things are going to be bad for you kid!' and it was that sort of novel. It's so un-Asian, because Asians are the least likely people to be thinking about history because we are very forward-looking as a people. We are least likely to not have self-will and yet these books always seem to be about people who are not in control of their own fate.
She points out that if you moved the plots of many of the great Asian novels' to London or Edinburgh, readers would fall apart laughing. So why does it become credible just because its from the exotic East? I just want people to understand that are we not that weird. We do things in a fairly normal way. We kill people for fairly normal reasons. You annoy me; you call me fat; I kill you. It's easy; it doesn't have to be about fate.
Mukoma is involved in projects which translate English books into Kiswahili and Kikuyu. He believes that language and narratives need to be spread to both the West as well as between global South cultures.
Even though I am trying to reach a universal audience, I still have a duty to my language, he says. What does it mean to be fluent, and to carry these worlds, in a language that is not mine? Shouldn't I enrich my own language? Right now I am enriching the English language, extending English literature, shouldn't I do this for my language as well?
The group discusses dealing with the critics, the pressure to create tourism-board depictions of their countries, and why everybody loves a good maverick.
This week's episode of South2North premieres at 19:30 GMT on Friday, 4 October 2013 and also screens on Saturday at 14h30, Sunday 04h30 and Monday 08h30.
For more information, visit http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/south2north/, where all episodes are available to watch online.
You can also tweet your questions, comments and opinions to @AJSouth2North or find South2North on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/South-2-North/255419671252120.
Catch up on last week's episode, where Redi discussed how chess can help mathematics education, below.
00:00
--
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
23/10/2025
The new solution is industry's first multi-channel receiver available for L3Harris's resilient tactical high-frequency data waveforms....
23/10/2025
NEW YORK During a high-profile session at NAB Show New York, new survey data was shared that revealed significant public concern over artificial intelligence (A...
23/10/2025
BELLEVUE, Wash. and NEW YORK Fox Weather has tapped T-Mobile as its preferred communications provider and said all of its reporters will be equipped with SuperM...
23/10/2025
RASTATT, Germany Broadcast and media workflow technology vendor Lawo has tapped Mike Wright as VP of sales, North America....
23/10/2025
MONTREAL European cultural broadcaster ARTE has selected Grass Valley LDX 135 cameras and Creative Grading solution as part of its move from SDI/1080i to a nati...
23/10/2025
CINCINNATI The E.W. Scripps Company has named Daniel Parsons as its new chief information security officer, effective Oct. 20....
23/10/2025
ALAMEDA, Calif. Northern Michigan broadcaster WWTV recently completed a major IP-based upgrade that connects its new Traverse City studio with its control room ...
23/10/2025
A deadline is looming for a new carriage deal between Verizon's Fios TV and Nexstar, with both Verizon and the pay TV-backed American Television Alliance bl...
23/10/2025
NEW YORK During a high-profile session at NAB Show New York, new survey data was shared that revealed significant public concern over artificial intelligence (A...
23/10/2025
BELLEVUE, Wash. and NEW YORK Fox Weather has tapped T-Mobile has as its preferred communications provider and announced that all Fox Weather reporters are being...
23/10/2025
PBS will use generative AI from Amazon Web Services to provide enhanced search results to viewers on the PBS App and PBS LearningMedia platforms, the network an...
23/10/2025
Back to All News
The Resurrected' Marks First Chinese-Language Series to L...
23/10/2025
RT is today publishing a statistical summary from the Register of External Activities for the second quarter of 2025.
The RT Register of External Activities ...
23/10/2025
Series three of the award winning, hit comedy entertainment series The 2 Johnnies Late Night Lock In is back on your screens, celebrating the very best of all t...
23/10/2025
Performances by Michael Flatley, Andy Irvine, Cuckoo's Nest, Foster and Allen and more
Friday 24 October, 8pm on RT One and RT Player
Fleadh Cheoil re...
23/10/2025
The nights grow longer and the shadows get bolder with Vampire The Masquerade: B...
22/10/2025
Prime Video Inks Deal To Present NFL Black Friday Game Worldwide By SVG Staff
Wednesday, October 22, 2025 - 10:06 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story ...
22/10/2025
NBA Tip-Off: ESPN Goes 1080p HDR End-to-End, Flipping HDR Switch on REMI and REM...
22/10/2025
FloSports Empowers Division II, III Athletic Departments With Turnkey Production...
22/10/2025
Wall Street Video Summit Debuts, Bringing Together 200 Financial Enterprise Vide...
22/10/2025
Dueling Pianos: International Chopin Piano Competition Is as Competitive as a Ba...
22/10/2025
In 1995, a young Colombian artist released an album that would change Latin pop ...
22/10/2025
Over the past few months, a photovoltaic system has been installed on a three-he...
22/10/2025
The Orion spacecraft for NASA's Artemis II mission is stacked on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kenn...
22/10/2025
L3Harris' Hybrid SATCOM is resilient by design, offering path diversity that eliminates vulnerabilities by routing data across the best available networks i...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. Organizers of NAB Show New York said they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countries along with 260 exhibitor...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Masque Sound, a leading theatrical sound reinforcement, installation and design company, supplied an extensive gear package of professional-grade equipment for ...
22/10/2025
Lightware, a global leader in signal management and AV connectivity solutions, is seeing strong market momentum for the UCX-3x3-TPX-RX20, a compact transmitter-...
22/10/2025
MELVILLE, N.Y. Chyron has released PAINT 10.2, the latest update for its telestration platform, adding support for SMPTE ST 2110 IP workflows, expanding brandin...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON Run3TV today said NBCUniversal is joining as an investor in the ATSC 3.0 Framework Authority, which develops the Run3TV NextGen TV application platfo...
22/10/2025
ATLANTA swXtch.io will feature two new networking solutions extending the company's reach across more cloud and on-prem workflows at NAB Show New York, set ...
22/10/2025
The Warner Bros. Discoverys HBO Max streaming services has increased prices for all its streaming tiers effectively immediately for new customers. Existing cust...
22/10/2025
LOS ANGELES OpenDrives has signed a new distribution partnership deal with Versatile Distribution Services (VDS) to strengthen its channel and streamline how it...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Samora Pinderhughes Brings Immersive Sound to Berklee's Signature Series The artist and composer, who's worked with Herbie Hancock, Robert Glasper, Co...
22/10/2025
BMI Day at Berklee Celebrates Composer Fil Eisler and Awards Scholarship to Stud...
22/10/2025
October 22nd, 2025 TRIBECA ANNOUNCES STAR-STUDDED LINEUP OF MEMBERSHIP EVENTS F...
22/10/2025
Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF cooperate in drone defense Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF partner to deliver a comprehensive drone defense solution combining Rohde & S...
22/10/2025
European Broadcaster Upgrades To Grass Valley's NativeIP LDX 135 Cameras And...
22/10/2025
Everyone Gets a Better Deal on Verizon with New FOX One Perk The $15 FOX One streaming service perk is yet another way Verizon continues to add savings for cu...
22/10/2025
First Look Hidden Assets Series 3
Premieres on 9th November 9:30pm on RT One & RT Player
WATCH HERE Promo Link: Hidden Assets Series 3 | RT
The Crimin...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Although AES Show Is on Its Own, Audio Will Be a Major Part o...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Business of Broadcast and Media,' Future of Content'...
21/10/2025
SVG All-Stars: Ethan Folz, Senior Director, Digital Operations and Quality of Ex...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: Livestream Offers Graphic Overlays, Predictive Gaming, Ancil...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: At the Front Bench With Producer Frank DiGraci and Director ...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: NBC Sports, NEP Build Ultra-Flexible Production Plan That Se...
Today on Al Jazeera's talk show South2North, Redi Tlhabi chats to three crime novelists: Professor Mukoma Wa Ngugi, the Kenyan-raised, American-based author of Black Star Nairobi; Professor Shamini Flint, the Malaysian-born, Singapore-based author of A Calamitous Chinese Killing; and Scotland's Ian Rankin, whose latest number one best-seller, Standing In Another Man's Grave, brings Inspector Rebus back from a five-year retirement. 
