Satyarth Nayak’s The Emperor’s Riddles is a thriller with elements borrowed from ancient history and Buddhist mythology
There’s no doubt that history is being explored by the new-age writers like never before. They are coming up with new formats and combining genres to create something that can neither be defined as ‘historical’ ‘non fiction.’ One such experiment is The Emperor’s Riddles by Satyarth Nayak. “History meets mystery” is Nayak’s description of his debut novel.
He explains, “It is a thriller with elements of ancient Indian history and Buddhist mythology. The central track of book is a murder intrigue while the exciting legend of a powerful and celebrated Indian emperor acts as the backdrop. The book takes you on a journey of cryptic riddles that you need to solve to finally reach the gates of an ancient enigma. It’s a racy thriller with murder, science, history, codes and myths, all rolled into one.”
Nayak feels that ‘history meets mystery’ is quite a fascinating genre. “While many may consider history as tales of the dead and gone, it has in recent times emerged as the proverbial cow that thriller writers are milking away. When a mystery novel employs historical figures, it turns all the more thrilling. History becomes the plot and its legendary personalities become characters. And in doing so, a well-researched mystery fiction, laced with history, perhaps educates and informs us more about our ancient past than a pile of history books,” says the author.
Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Charles Dickens, O’ Henry, Oscar Wilde and RK Narayan are among Nayak’s favourite authors, but he is inspired by Dan Brown. “I love how he seamlessly fuses the past and present in his novels. It creates layers within the narrative that collide to give the story depth and excitement. Also Brown’s sense of mystery and painstaking research into details is something all thriller writers must try and emulate,” says Nayak.
The writer is in love with murder mysteries and has grown up devouring writings by Holmes and Poirot. At present, he is researching for his next book. He informs, “I have a supernatural thriller in mind with elements of fantasy and paranormal. I am also working on a few film scripts with exciting story ideas. Promotion for The Emperor’s Riddles is also going on. With the book getting a fabulous response across India in just two months of its release, we are planning to take it to the next level in a big way.”