Has modern forensics taken away the thrill in murder mystery books? How does a career in corporate finance prepare you to write crime novels? Is narrative voice more important than plot? And is there really such a thing as a reliable narrator?
In this episode of the Ask Penguin Podcast, Rihanna Dillon sits down with bestselling crime fiction author Abir Mukherjee to discuss his new novel, The Pinnacle, who's the best on-screen Hercule Poirot, and how to write crime novels. Plus, Abir joins Penguin Books colleagues to answer questions and give out brilliant book recommendations.
About The Pinnacle:
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, check out https://goallin.org.uk
Chapters:
0:00 Intros
0:43 The new podcast studio
01:12 Did you always want to write thrillers?
02:45 Which author inspired you to write?
05:08 What are the best crime novels?
07:44 Who is the best fictional detective?
08:00 Who is the best Poirot actor?
11:55 What is The Pinnacle about?
15:30 How to write a believable setting?
21:26 How to write multiple character POVs?
23:10 How do you plot out a novel?
31:00 What book tropes do you avoid?
34:00 How has technology changed the way we write crime?
38:09 When do you hear character voices?
43:24 How do you build a reading habit?
45:50 Ask Penguin questions
1:06:26 Outros
What are the best books get you out of a reading slump? How did Snakes on a Plane inspire a literary sensation? What did James Joyce and Pakistani rap teach one of our debut novelists? And does a writer need to be completely delusional to finish writing a novel?
In this episode of the Ask Penguin podcast, Rhianna Dhillon sits down with three breakout 2026 debut authors, Angela Tomaski, Sufiyaan Salam, and Madeline Cash, to discuss the messy, hilarious reality of writing a first novel. And as always, we give out the best book recommendations to help you find your next read.
Discover all the books mentioned in this episode here: https://bit.ly/AskPenguinS4E4
About the books:
Wimmy Road Boyz by Sufiyaan Salam is a blistering story of masculinity, violence and love set over the course of a single, surreal night, told in energetic and cinematic prose.
The Infamous Gilberts by Angela Tomaski is a novel buoyed by love, buffeted by loss, and tangled together in an unputdownable story where the lines between eccentricity and madness, cruelty and love become hilariously heartbreakingly blurred.
Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash is a novel of quick-witted observation and surprising tenderness, conspiracies, loss and humour, a family saga for the twenty-first century, all held together with crazy glue.
About the authors:
Sufiyaan Salam is a writer and former animator from Blackburn. He’s working on several TV & feature projects, and co-wrote the short film MAGID / ZAFAR, premiering in 2025. Wimmy Road Boyz, winner of the #Merky Books New Writers’ prize, is his first novel.
Angela Tomaski was born in Oxford and raised in Somerset with her four brothers and sisters. She has had a variety of different jobs, including as a waitress, cleaner, English teacher and activity coordinator in a care home. She has a daughter and two grandsons, and now lives in rural Dorset.
Madeline Cash is the founder of Forever Magazine and the author of the story collection Earth Angel. Her fiction has appeared in Granta, The Baffler, The Sewanee Review, The Drift, and Bomb, among other publications. Lost Lambs is her debut novel.
For more information about the National Year of Reading, visit https://goallin.org.uk
Ask Penguin is the podcast where your quirkiest, trickiest, and most urgent book questions get answered. Hosted by Rhianna Dhillon, we bring bestselling authors and Penguin insiders to explore some of your favourite books and discover new ones that you are yet to read.
Keep up to date and listen to more episodes here: https://podfollow.com/thepenguinpodcast
0:00 Intro
01:47 How did you become published authors?
08:17 Which author inspired you to write?
11:24 How did you find the voice of your story?
17:05 How do you plan your novel?
25:17 How do write about family dynamics?
26:26 How does music play a role in your book?
30:46 How to write complex characters
33:29 Why does Lost Lambs have gnats in it?
37:10 Writing complex family relationships
42:02 The difficulties of writing
46:14 What book inspired your love of reading?
47:11 How to read more
48:15 What's next for you?
50:32 What novel would you recommend in the same genre?
52:33 What's the most underrated book from a well known author?
55:18 How to get out of a reading slump?
55:48 Which author should you read every book of?
Why does Dawn French love Kae Tempest? Do editors always know best? What is the impact of grief on those we love most? And what really happened when Dawn French came face to face with a hippo while filming Harry Potter?
Content warning: this episode contains content on suicide and suicidal feelings.
In this episode of Ask Penguin, Rhianna Dhillon sits down with bestselling author and comedy legend Dawn French to discuss her new novel Enough. Later, we're joined in the studio by Penguin colleagues to answer more of your questions and give out plenty of brilliant book recommendations.
Discover all the books mentioned in this episode here: https://bit.ly/AskPenguin_DawnFrench
About the book
Enough follows Etta, 68, happy, healthy and satisfied with the life she has lived. One morning she gathers her family together and drops a bombshell that they all have one day to come to terms with - this will be Etta’s final day alive.
About the author:
Dawn French has been making people laugh for 30 years. As a writer, comedian and actor, she has appeared in some of this country's most long-running and celebrated shows, including French and Saunders, The Vicar of Dibley, Jam and Jerusalem, and more recently, Can You Keep A Secret? Her first three novels, A Tiny Bit Marvellous, Oh Dear Silvia, and According to YES are all Sunday Times bestsellers.
For more information about the National Year of Reading, click here: https://goallin.org.uk
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0:00 Dawn French Intro
01:57 What is Dawn French's new book about?
05:37 What is Dawn French's Writing Process?
09:02 What does the title Enough mean?
11:39 What are the themes and characters in Enough?
16:51 Where is Enough by Dawn French set?
18:09 The Barcelona incident
21:19 The importance of the kitchen in the home?
28:48 What do people think about Enough by Dawn French?
33:18 Is Enough getting a film or stage adaptation?
34:16 Nostalgia and homesickness
36:06 Grandmother and granddaughter relationships
37:38 Dawn French on Kae Tempest
40:00 The book that sparked your love of reading?
41:40 Ask Penguin Questions
41:53 What is Dawn French reading now?
43:47 What book emotionally wrecked you?
48:07 What's a book that made you laugh out loud?
48:45 Dawn French and the hippo
54:04 What's a book you would pass down to the next generation?
59:49 Closing
What are the best books based on real events? What is one book that you would read over and over again? And if you could be friends with a book character, who would you pick?
On this episode of Ask Penguin, host Rhianna Dhillon is joined by Booker Prize-longlisted author Sophie Mackintosh and our Penguin books colleagues in the studio to answer more of your questions and hand out more book recommendations.
Find all the books mentioned in this episode here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/discover/articles/the-best-novels-about-infidelity-ask-penguin-podcast
Sophie Mackintosh is the author of four novels, including The Water Cure and Cursed Bread. She has been longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Women's Prize, has won a Betty Trask Award, and has been selected as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists. She has been published in Granta, The White Review and TANK magazine among others.
Her new book Permanence follows Clara and Francis – a couple in love, but in secret. When they wake in a strange city, they can finally be together. But as they move between this world and their ordinary lives, cracks begin to show, and they are forced to ask - how long can their love survive?
For more information about the National Year of Reading, click here: https://goallin.org.uk
Ask Penguin is the podcast where your quirkiest, trickiest, and most urgent book questions get answered. Hosted by Rhianna Dhillon, we bring bestselling authors and Penguin insiders to explore some of your favourite books and discover new ones that you are yet to read.
Keep up to date and listen to more episodes here: https://podfollow.com/thepenguinpodcast
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Subscribe to the Penguin channel:
http://po.st/SubscribePenguinYouTube
0:00 Intro
0:40 What books are based on real events?
03:33 What books can you read over and over again?
07:04 Which book character would you be friends with?
10:26 What are the best short story collections?
12:46 What are the best books where you will hate the main character?
16:24 What are the best books about affairs?
19:36 Outro
Can cheating ever be romantic? What are the best books about infidelity? What’s the difference between flash fiction and short stories? Why are we drawn to literature’s most flawed characters?
Booker Prize-longlisted novelist Sophie Mackintosh joins host Rhianna Dhillon to chat about her new novel Permanence, answer more of your questions, and give out plenty of book recommendations for what to read next.
Find all the books mentioned in this episode here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/discover/articles/the-best-novels-about-infidelity-ask-penguin-podcast
Sophie Mackintosh is the author of four novels, including The Water Cure and Cursed Bread. She has been longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Women's Prize, has won a Betty Trask Award, and has been selected as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists. She has been published in Granta, The White Review and TANK magazine among others. Her new book Permanence follows Clara and Francis – a couple in love, but in secret. When they wake in a strange city, they can finally be together. But as they move between this world and their ordinary lives, cracks begin to show, and they are forced to ask - how long can their love survive?
For more information about the National Year of Reading, click here: https://goallin.org.uk
Ask Penguin is the podcast where your quirkiest, trickiest, and most urgent book questions get answered. Hosted by Rhianna Dhillon, we bring bestselling authors and Penguin insiders to explore some of your favourite books and discover new ones that you are yet to read.
Keep up to date and listen to more episodes here: https://podfollow.com/thepenguinpodcast
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subscribe to the Penguin channel:
http://po.st/SubscribePenguinYouTube
Discover the dazzling, sweeping new novel from Sunday Times bestselling author, Emily Henry, Great Big Beautiful Life.
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Subscribe to the Penguin channel:
http://po.st/SubscribePenguinYouTube
How did Marian Keyes inspire Bryony Gordon’s writing? How do you write about family without falling into stereotypes? Which books capture the messy reality of life? And what is your favourite habit to fit reading into your life?
The Ask Penguin team returns with a shelf-load of must-read book recommendations - and we're joined by bestselling author, journalist, and podcaster Bryony Gordon to discuss her debut novel, People Pleaser.
Discover all the books mentioned in this episode here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/discover/articles/must-read-book-to-make-me-laugh-bryony-gordon
The novel follows Olivia Greenwood, a self-confessed people pleaser who, after one chaotic night out, decides it’s time to start living life on her own terms. Bryony Gordon is a columnist, author, and host of the podcast The Life of Bryony. She is the author of several bestselling books, including Mad Girl and You Got This, both Sunday Times No.1 bestsellers and British Book Award nominees, and is a passionate advocate for mental health, founding Mental Health Mates, a global peer support network. People Pleaser is her first novel.
Keep up to date and listen to more episodes here: https://podfollow.com/thepenguinpodcast
For more information about the National Year of Reading click explore
https://goallin.org.uk
Ask Penguin is the podcast where your quirkiest, trickiest, and most urgent book questions get answered. Hosted by Rhianna Dhillon, we bring bestselling authors and Penguin insiders to explore some of your favourite books and discover new ones that you are yet to read.
Keep up to date and listen to more episodes here: https://podfollow.com/thepenguinpodcast
0:00 Intro
01:01 Bryony Gordon
38:33 Ask Penguin Questions
56:41 Outro
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