Vikas Swarup is a member of the Indian Foreign Service. Originally published as Q&A, Slumdog Millionaire was an international bestseller. It has been translated into thirty-seven languages so far and was made into an award-wining Radio Four dramatization in 2006. His new novel, Six Suspects, has also been optioned for film. It is currently available as a Doubleday hardback and is due to be published as a Black Swan paperback in February 2009. Find out more about the author by visiting his website: www.vikasswarup.ne

"There's a caste system--even in murder" From the author of the international bestseller "Slumdog Millionaire" comes a richly-textured tale of murder, corruption, and opportunity. Seven years ago, Vivek "Vicky" Rai, the playboy son of the Home Minister of Uttar Pradesh, murdered bartender Ruby Gill at a trendy restaurant in New Delhi, simply because she refused to serve him a drink. Now Vicky Rai has been killed at the party he was throwing to celebrate his acquittal. The police recover six guests with guns in their possession: a corrupt bureaucrat who claims to have become Mahatma Gandhi overnight; an American tourist infatuated with an Indian actress; a stone-age tribesman on a quest to recover a sacred stone; a Bollywood sex-symbol with a guilty secret; a mobile-phone thief who dreams big; and an ambitious politician prepared to stoop low. Swarup unravels the lives and motives of the six suspects, offering both a riveting page-turner and an insightful peek into the heart of contemporary India. Audaciously and astutely plotted, with a panoramic imaginative sweep, "Six Suspects" is the work of a master storyteller.