‘Did I ever tell you?’ the prologue of writer Novoneel Chakraborty’s latest novel Black Suits You begins with this question. And it gives the first sign of the mysterious tale that is about to be unfolded in the next pages. An author who is known for his romantic thrillers, Novoneel has adopted the same genre for his new book too. It narrates the story of Kiyan, a 27-year-old author, who wrote the best-selling erotica trilogy — Handcuffs.
A reclusive person, Kiyan loves to remain anonymous. However, once his trilogy becomes a hit, he decides to make a public appearance. And, when he does that, his readers fall for his striking looks and sense of humour. Then, there is this mysterious girl who follows him everywhere and seduces him the way it is done in his novels.
Black Suits You by Novoneel Chakraborty Penguin Random House India pp.304, Rs 199
Novoneel says he draws inspiration from real life to sketch characters and then fine tune it to fit into the plot. The core idea of Black Suits You hit him during the book launch functions of his previous book All Yours, Stranger. “I discovered that one reader attended three of my launches in different cities every time telling me that she has some relative in that town. It just pushed me to wonder if she was following me with an agenda. Not that she actually was. But that thought was really the trigger for me to spin a tale. Also, I wanted to write about a girl who fights back after being ditched. The two thoughts seemed to merge nicely for this book,” explains the author.
It took him around eight months to complete this novel. “Since I was using a literary device of an unreliable narrator in this, which is rarely used in Indian thrillers, it took me some time to craft the story. That is what I believe gives the novel the intriguing value along with the big twist in the end.”
Novoneel says that he thoroughly enjoyed the process of creating the characters. “I always wanted to write a story where the protagonist turns out to be the antagonist in the end. Since every character in the story tells lies to each other, I had to be careful about exposing the character. This was something new to me.”
Novoneel had written a trilogy — The Stranger Trilogy — in the past and, he shares that it was a huge educative experience. “It isn’t easy to write a thriller series where every book is aimed to not only to bind the readers but also take their expectation to the next level every time. It was also the first time for me to work on the same storyline for such a long time. I would love to write a series again in the future. It is really an enjoyable challenge for a creative mind,” he points out.
Ever since he started writing, his forte has been romantic thriller. He shares, “I realised that a thriller exploring the dark shades of any relationship is something that excites me. I also believe the genre is always an eventuality of how a writer treats a story. I like to treat my stories using the romantic thriller template as I believe this is something which comes naturally to me.”
