Kalpana Swaminathan’s detective Lalli recently appeared in her eighth novel, Raagam Taanam Pallavi. Kalpana’s other books include the noir novel, Bougainvillea House, and Venus Crossing which has won the Crossword Fiction Prize. She writes with Ishrat Syed as Kalpish Ratna. Their detective Ratan/Ramratan Oak explores Mumbai in two time-frames: Mumbai as it is now and Bombay in the 19th century. Their non-fiction deals with the engagement between environment and emerging diseases.