Episode

What's wrong with reading to look smart? with Abir Mukherjee

Podcast
Ask Penguin
Published
Jun 17, 2026
Duration seconds
3516
Processing state
not_requested
Canonical source
https://shows.acast.com/thepenguinpodcast/episodes/abir-mukherjee-on-ask-penguin
Audio
https://sphinx.acast.com/p/acast/s/thepenguinpodcast/e/6a03315bece5b71f1f71b70c/media.mp3
JSON
/v1/public/podcasts/ask-penguin-555431/episodes/what-s-wrong-with-reading-to-look-smart-with-abir-mukherjee
Markdown
/podcast/ask-penguin-555431/what-s-wrong-with-reading-to-look-smart-with-abir-mukherjee.md

Actions

  • POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/ask-penguin-555431/episodes/what-s-wrong-with-reading-to-look-smart-with-abir-mukherjee/transcription-requests
    Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
  • GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/ask-penguin-555431/what-s-wrong-with-reading-to-look-smart-with-abir-mukherjee.md
    Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

Summary

Has modern forensics taken away the power of the murder mystery genre? How does a career in corporate finance prepare you to write about a killer? Is narrative voice more important than plot? And is there really such a thing as a reliable narrator?     In this episode of Ask Penguin, Rihanna Dillon sits down with bestselling author and crime fiction favourite Abir Mukherjee to discuss his new Mumbai-set satire The Pinnacle , alongside brilliant book recommendations from Abir and the Penguin team.  Discover all the books mentioned in this episode here About the book   George Abercrombie, a washed-up American heart-throb, hates India, even from the rarified heights of his apartment on the 68th floor of the Pinnacle, Mumbai’s grandest luxury skyscraper. When George wakes from a drunken stupor to find his wife Sweety murdered in their bedroom, he knows he will be the prime suspect. Welcome to the Pinnacle . A place where murder meets luxury and the world’s most privileged depend on the most desperate.  About the author   Abir Mukherjee is the bestselling author of the award-winning Wyndham & Banerjee series of crime novels set in 1920s India and the British Book Awards Crime Thriller of the Year 2025 Hunted . His books have been translated into sixteen languages and won various awards including the CWA Dagger for best Historical Novel, the Prix du Polar Européen, and the Wilbur Smith Award for Adventure Writing.  For more information about the National Year of Reading, click here https://goallin.org.uk   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.