Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Golu Bommai
Picture this — friends reunite in a remote Scottish manor house to celebrate Navaratri, the Nine Nights of the Hindu festival of dolls; but, what ought to be a joyous occasion quickly takes a deadly turn when the dolls are mysteriously rearranged, a guest is murdered, and secrets tumble out.
Intrigued? Rupa Mahadevan‘s debut psychological thriller Nine Dolls is set in a remote manor in Oban, Scotland. Leela, newly married and deeply traditional, joins her husband Dhruv and his close-knit group of old friends on the holiday. But from the start, something feels amiss. Every night unravels a new secret. The question becomes, which secret is worth killing for?
The reunion happens during Navaratri, the Hindu festival of the divine feminine. Leela, a relative outsider in the group, insists on bringing her dolls (Golu Bommai) to the festivities, hoping to honor her Indian rituals in an unfamiliar space. The traditional Navaratri Golu features a vibrant display of Golu Bommai—dolls and figurines representing gods, saints, and scenes from daily life—arranged on a series of tiered steps called padi, creating a colorful storytelling display.
Nine Dolls
In a chilling turn of events, the sacred dolls are mysteriously and deliberately rearranged into gruesome tableaux every day, each one eerily referencing a dark incident from the group’s past. Leela’s unease grows as she realises this is no prank. Someone or something is sending a message.
The friends’ surface-level cheer masks deeper fractures, especially after whispers of a past stalking incident resurface. When a storm cuts off all contact with the outside world, tensions turn deadly after one of the dolls is smashed, and one of the friends is murdered.
Trapped, paranoid, and hunted from within, the group must confront buried secrets, broken loyalties, and long-held grudges. Someone knows what they did years ago—and now, they’re finally ready to reveal it, and will go to any lengths to do so.
Nine nights-10 days
In an exclusive interview with India Currents, Rupa Mahadevan explained the inspiration for the story. To her, Navaratri is a cherished childhood memory where she would compete with her sister every year to set up the most elaborate Golu display. After moving to Edinburgh, Scotland, to raise her family, Mahadevan still sets up her Golu and invites friends to the celebration.
“10 Days Festival, Nine Nights — it lends (itself) beautifully to the high-pressure setup that you want to bring to a story. So I thought it’ll be a perfect match, and that’s how it began.”
If the plot feels familiar—à la And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie—you’re not wrong. Mahadevan is a huge Agatha Christie fan, and the story is definitely inspired by that classic mix of mystery, suspense, and secrets bubbling to the surface.
In 2022, after the pandemic pause, Mahadevan decided it was time to take writing seriously—something she’d always dreamed of. She joined Jericho Writers, a global writing community and committed to her writing journey.
She wrote her first full novel featuring a white male protagonist because growing up with Agatha Christie, “I thought the character should be like hers.” But her writing coach thought otherwise. “This is great. I love your story,” he told Mahadevan, but added, “Have you ever considered leaning a little bit more into your cultural heritage, bringing out those voices?”
It was the push she didn’t know she needed, and it led her straight back to her roots.
The sacred feminine
The festival of Navratri is about the sacred feminine, says Mahadevan, so it felt right that the novel features four strong female narrators and explores themes of female empowerment. Three of the narrators are of Indian origin, while the fourth is Scottish — an intentional choice that allowed Mahadevan to explore cultural contrasts and bring a different lens to the story.
Of course, it was “easier for me to write a female voice,” says Mahadevan, “but even though they don’t have a point of view, both Shravan and Dhruv’s character arcs — I hope it’s come through in the story.”
Oddly enough, when Mahadevan started writing the story, she did not know who the killer would be “until about 75% of the way…… I didn’t know who (was) going to die.” That’s because she is a pantster (as opposed to a plotter) who enjoys the journey of writing and discovery.
It’s often said that first-time writers tend to write autobiographically. When I asked Mahadevan about this, she admitted she sees parts of herself in both Leela and Smitha, “two characters (who) are probably polar opposites, but I feel that there is an element of me in both of these characters.”
“So that’s a strong conflict internally for me — I feel like I do follow a lot of traditional values. I love to celebrate a lot of Indian Hindu festivals. But there’s also this sarcastic voice that’s the voice of Smitha that comes naturally to me too, but probably only my family knows,” she admits laughingly.
While reading the book, the suspense hooked me, but it was the flawed, deeply human characters that stayed with me.
Mahadevan says that she enjoys creating compelling characters and giving them a well-rounded arc because “at some point in time the mask is going to drop, and then it is a high octane situation, exactly the life and death situation. It tends to bring out a lot more of your character flaws. So it would be unrealistic for me to paint someone who is perfect in every single aspect when they are undergoing something as thrilling and as scary as that.”
The Joffe Books Crime Prize
Finding her writing community at Jericho and getting honest feedback on her writing helped Mahadevan hone her craft; it also gave her the chance to read other people’s work. Observing different styles, voices, and storytelling techniques became a valuable learning experience, helping her grow as a writer. The contacts were invaluable as well; in fact, Mahadevan found out about writing competitions that eventually got her a publishing deal.
“It is quite difficult being an underrepresented writer and women of color coming into a publishing industry which is massive (crime fiction in Britain).”
Mahadevan isn’t a full-time writer. She works as a project manager at HSBC and also manages a busy home life with two children. She writes “wherever and whenever I get the chance,” she says.
“If I can get an hour during lunch, I will write on my travel back. I have written on trains, written in classes.” She has even written while standing at a bus stop with her laptop balanced on her lap. “I’ve leaned against walls, propped one leg up, and typed out scenes right there. I’ve written in car parks, in the car itself, in cafés after school drop-offs—even in clubs.”
Mahadevan won the Joffe Books Prize 2024, the UK’s biggest prize for crime fiction, which came with a two-book publishing deal with Joffe Books, a £1,000 cash prize, and a £25,000 audiobook deal from Audible for her debut novel.
It wasn’t easy to score a two-book deal, says Mahadevan, “but you can only win if you are in it.”
Nine Dolls by Rupa Mahadevan
September 25th, 2025
Joffe Books
304 pages
ISBN-10 : 1805732323
ISBN-13 : 978-1805732327