Coimbatore-born Ambai writes stories that linger with us long after we’ve read them. Her characters are deeply fleshed-out and drawn earnestly from life. Sudha Gupta, the cinnamon-tea loving detective, first seen in A Meeting on the Andheri Overbridge, is one such character, an everyday woman living in Mumbai. Sudha was sketched from “a combination of many women” whom Ambai knows, she tells us. In her latest collection, The Death of a Sarus Crane (Speaking Tiger), translated from Tamil by Gita Subramanian, the detective is back with four new cases. Each case provides a window into the inner conflicts of the protagonists and the reasons that compel certain situations to reach extreme ends. 

The strength of the book lies in the power of the detective to access emotions that others seemingly cannot. In entering spaces with care, a detective does not only solve crimes; they also save lives.