Anjana Rai Chaudhuri

Anjana Rai Chaudhuri (1958-) was born and brought up in Kolkata, India. Her father was a Professor of Biochemistry and her mother, a Physics teacher. She left India at the age of 26 to pursue her PhD in Chemistry at the University of Arizona, Tucson. There, she met her Singaporean husband, Royston Hogan, a fellow chemist. After graduation, the couple spent 2 years working at the University of Oxford in the UK. In late 1992, the couple settled in Singapore. Anjana worked as a research chemist and engineer in academics and industry, as well as tutored students. Her love for English fiction led her to acquire a BA degree in English Language and Literature at the age of 54 from the Singapore University of Social Sciences. After that, retired from science, she started to write The Scent of Frangipani, a historical romance, set in colonial Singapore. The book was published by Monsoon Books, UK, in 2019 and launched at the 2019 Singapore Writers Festival. Her debut crime thriller novel, the first of a series, A Time for Murder, set in modern day Singapore, is published in October 2021 by Penguin Books. Anjana loves to read fiction, write, listen to Indian music and experiment in cooking. Her favorite author is Charles Dickens and her favorite book is A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. She admires the writing of Tan Twan Eng, author of The Garden of Evening Mists. Anjana is an addict of crime thrillers, watching them on TV as well as reading thrillers. Her favorite crime writers are Val McDermid, PD James, Colin Dexter, Elizabeth George, Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, Erle Stanley Gardner, Mark Billingham and Sujata Massey. Her favorite crime TV series are Morse, Lewis, Endeavour, Poirot, Miss Marple, Sherlock Holmes, Vera, Line of Duty, Grantchester, Gently, Shetland, Father Brown, Perry Mason, Wallander and the Midsomer Murders.