The Problem with In-Laws Laid Bare in Debut Novel Thriller

When you marry your spouse, you marry their family.

Good-natured and naïve, yet far from innocent, Ali Azeem learns this the hard way in Amin Ahmad’s debut novel “A Killer in the Family”.

At first, he seems to have hit the jackpot with his arranged marriage to Maryram, the daughter of an Indian immigrant cum self-made New York real-estate tycoon.

Shortly after being swept up into an intoxicating world that boasts Manhattan’s most luxurious apartment, a bespoke wardrobe, and helicopter rides to the Hamptons, as well as an open invitation to join the family’s business empire, the young Muslim groom suspects that beneath his father-in-law’s meteoric success lies sinister deeds.

The author sends Ali on a mission to determine who his family-by-marriage really is: the embodiment of the American dream or the epitome of the dark side of power and ambition.

As Ali closes in on the shocking truth, he must ask himself if unimaginable wealth is worth the price.

Ahmad currently teaches creative writing at Duke University. He immigrated to America from India in 1985 at age 17 and drew from his own family secrets, former career as an architect, and love of “The Great Gatsby” to create his debut novel, a thriller with rollercoaster-like twists and turns.

Straus Media sat down with him to talk about immigrant success, career transitions, and following in the footsteps of Jay Gatsby.

What was it about the Fitzgerald classic that resonated with you as an immigrant?

I realized that Gatsby himself is sort of an immigrant. He’s trying to reinvent himself to be accepted by this elite East Coast society.

I really wanted to write an immigrant version [of this story].

Who in the novel is modeled after Gatsby?

It’s the father-in-law, Abbas Khan, because, like Gatsby, he came here, was hard scrapple, built himself up, but now that he’s very wealthy, he has all these Britishisms like a fake British accent. He’s an art lover and has suits made from Savile Row.

When people are in the presence of money, as Ali was, do they become blinded by it?

When Ali meets the Khans, he’s really seduced by the wealth, layered with marrying a stranger (“This is an arranged marriage. We don’t really know each other.”), which lets him give himself the excuse not to pay attention.

What made you leave architecture for writing?

I come from a family of storytellers. But when I first came here, I didn’t know any writers and didn’t know what a writing life meant.

Architecture seemed super creative to me. I went into that field, but writing was always where my heart was. I took evening classes and found a community that wanted to write books.

I think that kept me going for many years, until my wife got a fellowship at Columbia, and our deal was that I would take a year off to write and see what happened.

Your novel presents as an immigrant success story. But is it really the trope that rich people are bad?

Indians are like a model minority in this country. Doctors, lawyers, and engineers.

I wanted to write a novel about bad Indians. It’s more fun to write bad people.

Here, some of the characters are pretty monstrous, but I also hope to present the human side so you can see why somebody is monstrous. The truth is, we are all very complex and contradictory.

This book was my first step into messier fiction, where I didn’t attempt to create likable characters, but maybe relatable in their flaws.

The novel’s central question is “Is Ali willing to pay the dark price to achieve success?” Are you also asking readers to examine our own complicity in a system we benefit from?

I’m sure you’ve watched heist movies and found yourself cheering for them to pull off the heist, even though what they’re doing is completely wrong.

I think that’s really the power of fiction: we can watch it from the outside, to have readers start identifying and cheering for characters who are less than morally upright.

The book raises a big question about what would happen if you were presented with the option to marry into this rich family. How would you deal with it? The reader gets put in the driver’s seat.

Some chapters are diary entries. Do you want to talk about that choice?

A thing I took from Gatsby is telling the story from the point of view of an outsider. Nick Caraway functions as an outside observer in “The Great Gatsby.” In this case, there’s Ali.

As he learns about the family, we learn about him.

I soon found that I needed another point of view to counteract what Ali is talking about.

I chose the older sister, Farhan’s diary entries, which give us a different take on what’s happening.

Hopefully, the reader tries to create the truth that bridges both perspectives.

What do you want readers to think when they finish this book?

The way that the book is set up, the ending works in that one story of the Khans is coming to an end. It’s New Year’s Day. Ali and Maryram are driving in a car through the city. They have survived a lot. Their eyes are open to what exactly the nature of the family is. And another chapter of their life is beginning.

I would love for the reader to be satisfied by what they’ve read but also be wondering about what these people are going to do next.

“A Killer in the Family” is available April 7^th. Author Amin Ahmad will be in conversation at The Strand, 450 Columbus Avenue, on April 14^th at 7 PM: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/aaww-the-strand-present-amin-ahmad-kirthana-ramisetti-tickets-1980725174316

Lorraine Duffy Merkl is the author of the novel “The Last Single Woman in New York City.”