V Sanjay Kumar first began working on the crime thriller seven years ago

In V Sanjay Kumar's new novel, The Third Squad (Juggernaut Books), there's a moment when one of his characters, Ranvir Pratap, lists traits he'd like to see in the special encounter squad that he has been tasked with putting together. "I needed to be careful with my team and look for people who would be less affected," he tells himself. "Sympathy and empathy were unwanted. I wished for a while that I had a genetically modified team to manage, one that spoke less, operated alone, was less social, did not feel for the targets or imagine what would happen to their families."